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3  1822  02584  3731 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822  02584  3731 


THE  WAR  AND  AMERICA 


BOOKS  BY  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG 

Psychology  and  Life 

pp.  286,  Boston.  1899 

Grundziige  der  Psychologie 

pp.  666,  Leipzig,  1900 

Ameriean  Traits 

pp.  236,  Boston,  1902 

Die  Amerikaner 

pp.  502  and  349,  Berlin,  1904  {Rev.  1913) 

Principles  of  Art  Education 

pp.  US,  New  York,  1906 

The  Eternal  Life 

pp.  72,  Boston,  1905 

Science  and  Idealism 

pp.  71,  Boston,  1906 
Philosophic  der  Werte 

pp.  4S6,  Leipzig,  1907 
On  the  Witness  Stand 
pp.  269,  New  York,  190S 

Aus  Deutsch-Amerika 

pp.  246,  Berlin,  1909 

The  Eternal  Values 

pp  -Jiff,  Boston,  1909 

Psychotherapy 

pp.  401,  New  York,  1909 

Psychology  and  the  Teacher 

pp.  330,  New  York,  1910 

American  Problems 

pp.  220,  New  York,  1910 

Psychologic  und  Wirtschaftsleben 

pp.  192,  Leipzig,  1912 

Vocation  and  Learning 

pp.  289,  St.  Lotus,  1912 

Psychology  and  Industrial  Efficiency 

pp.  321,  Boston,  1913 

American  Patriotism 

pp.  262,  New  York,  1913 

Grundziige  der  Psyohotechnik 

pp.  767,  Leipzig,  1914 

Psychology  and   Social  Sanity 

pp.  320,  New  York,  1914 

Psychology.  General  and  Appl''«d 

pp.  4S7,  Xcw  York.  I'.lli 

The  War  and  America 

New  York,  1'.)  I L 


THE  WAR 
AND    AMERICA 


BY 


HUGO  MUNSTERBERG 


D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

1914 


COPTBIGHT,  1914,  BY 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO  ALL 
LOVERS  OF  FAIR  PLAY 


PREFACE 

This  book  discusses  the  essential  factors  and 
issues  in  the  European  war  and  their  meaning 
and  import  for  America.  The  hour  for  an  im- 
personal account  of  the  war  has  certainly  not  yet 
come,  and  may  not  come  for  a  long  while.  What 
our  time  can  contribute  is  the  reflection  of  the 
great  war  in  the  minds  of  individuals.  A  story 
of  memories  and  impressions,  of  fears  and  hopes, 
has  to-day  more  inner  truth  than  any  history  of 
the  struggle  apparently  written  with  an  historian 's 
coolness.  This  diary,  therefore,  views  the  events 
as  they  unfold  themselves  from  week  to  week, 
from  the  angle  of  personal  experiences. 

Life  has  brought  me  into  close  contact  with 
much  which  is  essential  in  this  war.  Hence  my 
studies  may  help  toward  a  better  understanding 
of  facts  and  feelings  which  are  easily  misunder- 
stood in  America.  I  publish  the  book,  of  which 
the  emphasis  lies  in  the  last  paper,  before  the  war 
is  ended.  Whatever  more  the  struggle  may  bring 
refers  to  outer  events,  to  the  harvest  of  the  guns, 
to  victory  or  defeat.  It  cannot  change  the  issues 
with  which  these  pages  have  to  do.  They  do  not 
speak  of  soldiers  and  strategy  and  the  chances  of 
the  battlefield ;  they  speak  of  right  and  wrong ; 
they  speak  of  eternal  values. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAQB 

I.    The   Aggressors 1 

II.     The   Anti-German    Sentiment   ...  15 

III.  The  German-Americans  .      .      .  •    .      .  47 

IV.  The  Threatened  Provinces  ....  57 
V.     The  English 68 

VI.    Philosophers 79 

VII.     The  Russians 92 

VIII.     The  German  Policy 108 

IX.     The    Kaiser 124 

X.     The  Silent  Voices 138 

XI.     The  Americans 155 

XII.    The  Morals  op  the  War 175 

Note 209 


THE  WAR  AND  AMERICA 


THE  AGGRESSOKS 

War  is  declared — the  extra  numbers  of  the 
papers  shout  it  through  the  streets — War  is 
declared.  The  war  is  declared.  There  have 
been  wars  as  long  as  mankind  remembers, 
but  this  is  not  a  war  like  others.  This  is  the 
war  which  will  stand  out  from  the  world's 
history  like  a  Titan  among  the  pigmies.  This 
is  the  war  in  which  undreamed-of  armies  will 
storm  against  each  other;  the  war  in  which 
the  battles  will  be  fought  on  land  and  sea, 
under  the  water  and  high  in  the  air ;  the  war 
in  which  the  ground  of  the  whole  globe  will 
be  shaken. 

How  peaceful  was  our  yesterday !  How  it 
was  filled  with  the  work  and  the  joy,  the 
good-will  and  the  stress,  the  pleasantness  and 
the   littleness   of   the   passing  lackadaisical 

1 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

hours !  And  suddenly  a  lightning  and  a  thun- 
der crash  and  a  cry  through  the  world;  and 
we  stand  in  a  time  of  which  men  will  speak 
through  all  the  future  ages.  Passions  will  be 
ablaze,  streams  of  blood  will  drench  all 
Europe,  temples  will  fall  and  sacred  treas- 
ures will  be  destroyed,  works  of  art  and  of 
science  will  be  thrown  in  the  dust,  hundreds 
of  thousands  will  die  and  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions will  suffer — it  is  an  end,  and  nowhere 
a  beginning. 

Is  it  a  terrible  nightmare  of  our  dreams? 
Were  these  peoples  not  bound  together  by 
innumerable  ties  of  social  and  moral,  eco- 
nomic and  cultural  intercourse?  Were  Ber- 
lin and  Paris  and  Petersburg  and  Vienna 
and  Rome  and  London  not  the  sparkling  cen- 
ters of  one  great  European  Fair,  hospitable 
to  every  guest,  glittering  with  international 
spirit?  Their  scholars  and  writers  and  paint- 
ers, their  inventors  and  engineers  and  social 
reformers,  worked  for  the  world,  and  the 
world  welcomed  them  and  forgot  all  boun- 
dary lines.  The  national  armies  of  Euro- 
pean civilization  marched  shoulder  to  shoul- 
der; was  ever  a  war  more  unnatural,  more 
superfluous,  more  horrible,  than  this  sudden 

2 


THE    AGGRESSORS 

clash  among  friends!  Has  not  a  frivolous, 
reckless  militarism  won  a  distressing  and 
scandalous  triumph  over  the  powers  of 
culture  ? 

And  yet  was  ever  a  war  more  natural,  more 
unavoidable?  It  is  central  Europe's  des- 
perate defense  against  the  mighty  neighbors 
of  east  and  west  who  have  prepared  and  pre- 
pared for  the  crushing  blow  to  the  Germanic 
nations.  This  war  had  to  come  sooner  or 
later.  Russia  spent  billions  to  be  ready  to 
push  the  steam  roller  of  its  gigantic  popula- 
tion over  the  German  frontier.  France 
armed  as  no  civilized  nation  ever  armed  be- 
fore; even  the  educated  had  to  serve  three 
years  in  the  army  against  the  one  year's 
service  in  Germany.  For  decades  the  French 
did  not  allow  Germany  an  hour  to  rest  with- 
out armor. 

Germany's  pacific  and  industrious  popula- 
tion had  only  the  one  wish:  to  develop  its 
agricultural  and  industrial,  its  cultural  and 
moral  resources.  It  had  no  desire  to  expand 
its  frontiers  over  a  new  square  foot  of  land 
in  Europe.  It  aimed  to  unfold  its  commerce 
over  the  markets  of  the  world  and  to  build 
up  a  great  national  literature  and  art  and 

3 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

science.  It  became  prosperous  and  even  lux- 
urious. But  never  did  the  neighbors  allow  to 
Germany  a  pause  in  its  training  of  patriotic 
defenders.  The  neighbors  begrudged  this 
prosperity  of  the  fatherland  which  had  been 
weak  and  poor  and  through  centuries  satis- 
fied with  songs  and  thoughts  and  dreams. 
They  threatened  and  threatened  by  ever  in- 
creasing armaments.  Germany  had  to  spend 
a  vast  part  of  its  material  and  mental  income 
in  a  hard  preparation  for  defense. 

All  geographical  chances  were  against  the 
fatherland,  which  was  to  be  attacked  from 
two  sides.  Only  one  advantage  was  at  its  dis- 
posal. Germany's  small  territory  allows 
mobilization  and  concentration  in  a  few  days, 
while  Russia  needs  as  many  weeks  to  bring 
its  tremendous  hordes  to  the  frontier.  Hence 
Germany's  only  hope  was,  in  case  of  Russian 
mobilization,  not  to  wait  until  the  Russians 
had  completed  their  movements  but  to  at- 
tack as  soon  as  the  Czar  began  to  draw  up 
his  troops  to  its  boundaries.  To  delay  the 
German  attack  after  such  a  Russian  order  to 
mobilize  would  mean  to  throw  away  the  only 
chance  for  defense.  Germany  was  on  the 
lookout.    Yet  only  a  few  weeks  ago,  no  Ger- 

4 


THE    AGGRESSORS 

man,  high  or  low,  foresaw  that  such  a  de- 
cisive move  of  Russia  was  so  near.  All  Ger- 
many was  on  a  vacation,  in  the  mountains 
and  at  the  sea.  The  Emperor  was  enjoying 
his  yearly  summer  trip  in  Norway.  Nobody 
thought  of  imminent  danger  until  the  events 
overtook  the  world. 

Servians  had  killed  the  heir  of  the  Aus- 
trian throne  and  Austria  discovered  that 
Servia  itself  stood  behind  the  dastardly  deed. 
Austria  insisted  on  a  severe  punishment  of 
all  concerned  and  sent  an  ultimatum  to 
Servia.  Belgrade  was  willing  to  yield  com- 
pletely to  its  great  neighbor,  but  at  noontime 
of  the  day  on  which  the  ultimatum  was  to 
end,  a  cipher  telegram  from  Petersburg  ar- 
rived, and  the  message  of  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment to  the  Servian  reversed  the  mood 
of  the  little  kingdom.  The  bellicose  Servian 
Crown  Prince,  standing  in  his  automobile, 
drove  jubilantly  through  the  excited  crowds 
on  the  streets,  and  a  few  hours  later  a  re- 
fusal was  sent  to  Vienna  which  could  mean 
nothing  but  war.  The  Czar  had  instigated  it 
and  was  consistent:  the  Russian  empire  was 
to  back  little  Servia  against  its  foes.  He  gave 
orders  to  mobilize  the  whole  Russian  army. 

5 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

The  German  Emperor  hurried  home  and 
found  that  the  Russian  troops  were  being 
concentrated  on  the  frontier.  He  implored 
the  Czar  to  abstain  from  this  threatening 
move,  and  he  reminded  him  of  his  pledge 
to  his  dying  grandfather  to  keep  peace  with 
Russia  as  long  as  possible;  he  urged  him  to 
consider  how  Germany  had  helped  the  Rus- 
sian cause  in  one  conflict  after  another  and 
had  allowed  Russia  to  evacuate  its  eastern 
frontiers  in  the  war  with  Japan,  pledging 
peace  in  the  hours  of  Russia's  weakness. 
But  all  was  of  no  avail.  On  the  other  hand, 
Austria  felt  that  it  could  not  withdraw  from 
its  demands  to  Servia.  If  the  Servian  at- 
tacks which  culminated  in  the  assassinatioi? 
remained  unpunished,  the  Pan-Slavic  agita 
tion  at  its  doors  would  soon  grow  to  a  poir^t 
at  which  the  Slavic  provinces  of  Austria  it- 
self would  be  inflamed  and  the  whole  Aus- 
trian empire  would  break  in  pieces  and  be- 
come annihilated.  This  was  evidently  the 
hope  of  Russia,  which  would  gain  by  it  the 
control  of  the  Balkans  and  of  Constantinople. 

The  German  Emperor  nevertheless  prom- 
ised the  Czar  to  urge  his  Austrian  ally 
toward    mediation,    if,    meanwhile,    Russia 

6 


THE    AGGRESSORS 

would  only  pause  in  mobilizing  the  troops. 
But  the  Czar  was  stubborn.  His  armies  were 
marching  on,  and  as  soon  as  the  eastern 
colossus  began  to  move,  at  the  signal  of  Rus- 
sia, France  too  mobilized  at  once.  No  Ger- 
man protest  helped.  Now  Germany  knew 
that  the  dreaded  hour  of  the  twofold  attack 
against  its  homes  had  come.  It  answered 
with  a  quick  declaration  of  war.  This  was 
the  one  act  which  was  necessary  for  Ger- 
many's defense.  Surely,  although  Germany 
made  the  declaration,  this  is  a  war  against 
Germany,  and  it  is  a  sin  against  the  spirit 
of  history  to  denounce  Germany  as  the  ag- 
gressor. 

It  may  be  the  declaration  of  war  came 
too  late.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better 
if  Germany  had  really  had  something  of  the 
aggressive  temper  which  hostile  critics  now 
seek  in  its  deed.  Then  it  would  have  fallen 
upon  Russia  when  it  was  bleeding  from  the 
war  with  Japan.  Then  it  would  have  turned 
against  France  when  England  was  held  by  its 
Boer  war.  But  Germany  had  for  more  than 
forty  years  the  one  desire  to  have  peace  in 
order  to  develop  its  inner  energies.  Aggres- 
sion was  foreign  to  its  policies  and  plans. 

7 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

It  allowed  all  its  chances  for  easy  victory 
to  pass.  Will  it  suffer  from  this  persistent 
peacef  ulness  ! 

But  I  trust  that  the  Germans  will  know 
how  to  protect  the  harvests  of  their  fields. 
It  is  true  no  fanaticism  sharpens  their  sword 
like  those  of  the  rivals;  no  craving  for  re- 
venge, no  mad  longing  for  new  power.  The 
Germans  feel  admiration  for  the  French 
genius  and  have  respect  for  their  political 
aims.  The  Germans  will  feel  no  hatred 
against  England  either.  To  be  sure,  they 
think  the  English  selfish,  and  they  have  suf- 
fered from  that  selfishness.  But  they  look 
up  to  the  masterful  energy  with  which  Eng- 
land pushes  its  world-wide  interests  of  state. 
There  is  no  nation  of  Europe  with  which 
Germany  would  like  more  to  live  in  deepest 
harmony  and  peace  than  with  Great  Britain. 
Nor  do  the  Germans  grudge  the  advance  of 
Russia  from  darkness;  they  have  sympathy 
with  the  Russian  inner  struggles;  they  love 
Dostoievsky  and  Tolstoi.  No,  Germany's 
cause  would  be  lost  from  the  start,  if  only 
hatred  could  lead  to  victory. 

But  something  greater  is  at  stake.  Ger- 
mans are  attacked;  they  must  defend  their 

8 


THE    AGGRESSORS 

homes  and  they  must  defend  them  against  an 
overwhelming  number.  Germans  know  that 
the  fight  is  not  for  distant  places  or  for  the 
gains  of  the  mighty,  but  that  they  must  pro- 
tect wife  and  children,  and  a  grim  stolid  de- 
termination will  hold  them  firmly  until  the 
hour  of  decision  is  over.  But  they  know  also 
what  a  German  defeat  must  mean  to  the  ideal 
civilization  of  the  world.  The  culture  of 
Germany  would  be  trampled  down  by  the 
half-cultured  Tartars.  Strategically  this 
may  be  Germany 's  war  with  France  and  Bel- 
gium and  England  as  well  as  with  Russia. 
But  seen  from  the  higher  standpoint  of  cul- 
tural world  history,  it  is  exclusively  a  strug- 
gle between  Russia  and  Germany.  They  are 
truly  in  an  internal  conflict.  Russia  feels 
that  it  must  gain  political  predominance  over 
its  neighbor  in  order  to  win  complete  control 
of  the  Balkan.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the 
war.  France  and  maybe  England  are  simply 
making  use  of  Germany's  embarrassment 
and  danger  in  order  to  tear  Alsace-Lorraine 
and  the  African  colonies  and  the  world  com- 
merce from  it,  while  it  is  forced  to  wrestle 
with  the  eastern  giant. 

Yet   I  trust  in  Germany's   armor,  even 
9 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

though  the  enemy  is  overpowering.  I  trust 
in  it,  because  I  know  that  the  German  army 
is  the  whole  healthy  nation,  held  together 
not  by  a  ruler's  will  nor  by  the  enforced  de- 
mand of  a  class  but  by  the  one  common  pas- 
sionate wish  to  defend  the  German  land 
against  envy  and  jealousy.  The  tradition  of 
a  full  century  from  the  solemn  days  of 
Prussia's  liberation  from  the  Napoleonic 
yoke  has  ingrained  in  every  heart  this  devo- 
tion to  the  army.  Moreover,  Germany  has  to 
a  high  degree  overcome  the  apparent  conflict 
which  made  the  other  enlightened  nations 
suffer:  the  conflict  between  militarism  and 
culture.  It  made  the  training  in  the  army  an 
educative  schooling  of  the  whole  population 
for  efficiency  in  every  line  of  national  work. 
The  service  in  barrack  and  camp  became  a 
time  of  personal  happiness,  of  social  growth, 
of  vocational  advance.  Army  and  nation  be- 
came one  as  in  no  other  land. 

Finally,  the  German  masses  may  not  be 
quick  and  versatile  but  they  are  thorough 
and  persistent.  German  thoroughness  has 
carried  the  day  on  the  battlefields  of  science 
and  scholarship;  it  cannot  have  failed  in  the 
maneuver  fields  where  the  war  of  the  future 

10 


THE    AGGRESSORS 

was  prepared.  The  Germans  who  must  fight 
to-day  have  been  brought  up  under  the 
shadow  of  the  feeling  that  revengeful  neigh- 
bors were  waiting  for  the  hour  to  burn  their 
villages  and  their  towns;  they  have  never 
been  relieved  from 'this  tension;  they  knew 
that  they  had  to  keep  the  edge  of  the  Ger- 
man sword  sharp.  It  became  an  organic  part 
of  their  life. 

Most  Americans  cannot  think  themselves 
into  this  German  sentiment.  They  fancy  that 
the  workingman  and  the  man  behind  the  plow, 
the  business  man  and  the  university  man, 
hate  and  despise  the  army  and  that  the  gov- 
ernment to-day  is  forcing  the  rifle  to  their 
shoulders.  The  Americans  of  our  time  have 
never  known  the  dread  that  the  neighbors 
may  to-morrow  break  into  their  homes  and 
destroy  the  happiness  of  their  hearths. 
Spain  and  Mexico  were  intermezzos,  no 
dangers:  excitements,  but  not  deepest  life 
concerns.  But  avery  German  has  known  it 
otherwise  from  his  childhood  days. 

Nature  formed  from  its  clay  no  creature 
with  more  peaceful  instincts  than  myself ;  yet 
the  thought  of  the  army  was  intertwined  with 
every  phase  of  my  life.    It  is  almost  typical 

11 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

that  the  earliest  memory  of  my  mind  and 
the  earliest  preserved  writing  of  my  pen 
referred  to  war.  Indeed,  my  conscious  life 
begins  with  the  vivid  image  of  the  scene  when 
victorious  hussars  came  back  in  1866  from 
the  battlefields  of  the  short  Prussian  war 
with  Austria.  I  was  just  three  years  old,  and 
I  see  still  how  my  parents  held  me  on  the 
window-sill  and  gave  me  a  wreath  to  throw 
down  on  the  riders  when  they  came  home 
from  victory.  The  strong  emotion  must  have 
impressed  the  picture  on  my  consciousness, 
as  I  cannot  remember  anything  before.  And 
the  first  writing  which  was  kept  from  my 
childhood  was  a  childish  poem  written  in 
1870  when  I  was  seven  years  of  age,  on  the 
day  of  the  declaration  of  war  between  Ger- 
many and  France.  It  began  in  the  German 
rhymes :  "Der  Krieg  ist  erklart;  in  die  Hand 
nun  das  Schwert" — ''The  war  is  declared; 
take  the  sword  in  hand."  I  could  not  fore- 
see that  forty-four  years  later,  far  beyond 
the  sea,  I  would  have  to  begin  once  more  my 
diary  page — ''The  war  is  declared." 

With  these  two  wars  which  my  personal 
memory  still  embraces,  the  events  began 
which  led  to  the  combinations  of  the  present 

12 


THE   AGGRESSORS 

war.  In  1866  Prussia's  predominant  role  in 
Germany  was  decided,  but  with  a  sure  in- 
stinct for  future  needs,  at  the  same  time  the 
political  bridges  were  built  on  which  Prussia 
and  Austria  could  meet  for  the  firm  alliance 
of  to-day.  The  war  of  1870,  recklessly  stirred 
by  the  intolerance  of  imperial  France,  cre- 
ated the  German  empire,  but  at  the  same 
time  it  left  in  republican  France  that  blind 
striving  for  the  lost  provinces  which  has  con- 
trolled all  its  policies  since  that  time.  Again 
and  again  France  threatened  its  neighbor 
with  its  warlike  steps.  I  remember  well  in  the 
early  'eighties,  when  I  was  a  student  in 
Heidelberg  and  the  elections  for  the  Reichs- 
tag were  near,  how  our  street  corners  were 
placarded  with  diagrams  of  fortresses  and 
regiments  showing  the  alarming  growth  of 
French  preparations.  There  was  no  other 
talk  among  us  students  but  the  war  which 
the  French  restlessness  would  force  upon  us. 
This  feeling  was  aggravated  when  Russia's 
political  ill  will  toward  Germany  became 
more  violent.  Soon  came  the  time  when  we 
all  were  inspired  by  Bismarck's  words,  *'We 
Germans  fear  God  and  no  one  else  in  the 
world."      They    echoed    in    every    German 

13 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

heart  and  it  was  felt  that  they  were  meant 
for  both  the  French  and  the  Russian  neigh- 
bor. The  danger  never  disappeared.  Some- 
times the  tension  became  almost  intolerable. 
Now  the  explosion  has  come.  The  Czar  has 
decreed  the  war.  France  uses  the  long- 
hoped-for  hour  of  Germany's  danger.  Ger- 
many is  attacked  on  both  sides ;  Germany  is 
forced  to  fight ;  Germany  must  win  or  perish. 
But  whoever  wins,  whoever  loses,  all  Europe 
will  suffer. 

The  last  day  which  I  spent  in  Europe,  sum- 
mer before  last,  I  was  in  the  ruins  of  Pom- 
peii. When  the  ship  left  the  European  coast, 
a  dark  cloud  was  hanging  over  Vesuvius  and 
it  looked  as  if  the  crater  might  break  and 
endless  masses  of  lava  once  more  flood  over 
the  gay,  flourishing  villages.  All  the  peo- 
ples of  Europe  have  settled  and  toiled  on  the 
slopes  of  Vesuvius,  and  the  crater  has 
erupted,  and  the  glowing  torrent  is  again 
pouring  over  the  homes  of  peaceful  men. 
Will  Europe,  the  beautiful,  become  a  great 
Pompeii? 


n 

THE  ANTI-GERMAN  SENTIMENT 

Does  the  war  fever  make  the  whole  world 
delirious?  Are  all  feelings  and  emotions 
suddenly  reversed,  the  sympathies  of  yester- 
day nothing  but  hatred  to-day?  Is  the  gigan- 
tic tragedy  of  Europe  to  be  accompanied  by 
a  travesty  of  war  on  the  pages  of  the  Ameri- 
can paper  world?  We  live  in  a  neutral  coun- 
try. Washington  is  not  Petersburg;  and 
yet  can  the  outbursts  of  enmity  toward  Ger- 
many be  harsher  in  the  Czar's  country  than 
on  Broadway? 

Only  one  year  ago  the  leading  papers  from 
Boston  to  Washington  and  from  New  York 
to  San  Francisco  were  outdoing  one  another 
in  jubilant  celebrations  of  William  II,  the 
peace  Emperor,  at  the  twenty-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  his  splendid  reign.  The  best  men  of 
the  country,  the  stars  in  every  line  of  work 
and  thought,  hailed  the  man  on  the  German 

15 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

throne  who  had  been  the  strongest  force  for 
European  peace  and  who  had  led  the  Gernoan 
people  to  triumphs  in  every  peaceful  art  and 
endeavor.  To-day,  exactly  the  same  news- 
papers which  had  the  superb  Sunday  supple- 
ments devoted  to  Emperor  "William  as  the 
greatest  and  noblest  leader  of  our  time,  vitu- 
perate him  like  a  cancerous  growth  on  the 
body  of  European  politics,  which  should  be 
eradicated  by  the  knife  of  the  surgeon.  The 
Hohenzollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs  must  fall : 
that  is  the  cry  around  Times  Square. 

Millionfold  family  ties  link  the  Americans 
with  the  German  people;  import  and  export 
of  the  land's  products,  import  and  export  of 
art  and  science,  of  educational  and  of  social 
ideas,  import  and  export  of  respect  and 
good  will,  have  bound  the  United  States  and 
Germany  and  Austria  closely  together.  To- 
day, one  surging  wave  of  hatred  has  swept  it 
all  away.  The  columns  of  the  papers  are 
filled  with  absurd  calumnies  and  the  silliest 
denunciations.  If  a  tenth  of  that  which  the 
press  brings  out  about  the  German  people 
were  true — yes,  were  even  possible — all  that 
it  has  said  about  them  year  by  year  would 
have  been  reckless  lies. 

16 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

I  believe  sincerely  that  I  should  feel  the 
same  distress  over  this  anti-German  out- 
break, if  my  sympathies  lay  with  the  foes  of 
Germany;  because  it  deprives  me  of  the 
ideal  faith  which  has  filled  my  heart  for 
years,  the  faith  in  the  fairness  of  the  Amer- 
ican people.  I  have  repeated  incessantly 
in  all  my  German  writings  about  America 
that  the  desire  for  fairness  is  one  of  the 
deepest  traits  in  the  true  American  mind. 
How  often  have  I  heralded  to  the  European 
readers  the  glory  of  the  American  law  which 
treats  everyone  as  innocent  until  the  accusa- 
tion is  proved  and  never  condemns  until  the 
accused  has  had  the  fullest  chance  to  pre- 
sent his  side.  Must  I  reverse  all  my  en- 
thusiasm and  my  faith?  American  public 
opinion  has  accused  and  condemned  the  unde- 
fended; unfairly,  cruelly,  unworthily. 

But  may  not  the  social  psychologist  recog- 
nize another  feature  in  the  American  mind 
which  allows  a  different  explanation  of  this 
baflSing  injustice?  Nobody  can  analyze  the 
mental  habits  of  the  new  world  without  notic- 
ing the  unusual  degree  of  imitativeness  and 
suggestibility.  Every  emotional  excitement 
produces  a  state  in  which  the  individual  loses. 

17 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

his  strength  of  intellect  and  will  and  charac- 
ter and  becomes  a  mere  automatic  mechanism 
in  which  the  thoughts  and  feelings  and  im- 
pulses of  his  neighbor  control  his  mind.  No 
other  nation  is  so  inclined  to  like  uniformity 
and  monotony  in  social  life  and  ideas ;  none 
has  so  little  room  for  individual  differences. 
The  American  idea  of  a  gentleman  is  of  a 
man  who  is  not  conspicuous;  and  the  crowd 
always  wants  to  follow  the  band  wagon. 
Everyone  tries  to  be  ''in  it" ;  everyone  wears 
the  same  collar  and  the  same  hat,  and  reads 
the  same  novels  and  thinks  the  same  about 
Europe.  There  is  a  lack  of  individual  re- 
sistance to  prescribed  opinions  which  pro- 
duces in  excited  states  a  colorless  whole- 
sale judgment  which  may  be  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  the  natural  stand  of  the  sober 
single  individuals. 

I  still  trust  that  just  this  is  the  case  now. 
Public  opinion  against  Germany  has  not  re- 
sulted from  the  unfairness  of  the  single  in- 
dividuals but  from  this  thoughtless  impulse 
to  imitate  as  soon  as  a  great  excitement  per- 
turbs the  balanced  mood.  The  first  days  the 
newspapers  were  filled  with  cablegrams 
from  Germany's  foes.    Incredible  rumors  of 

18 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

German  atrocities,  highly-colored  reports  of 
German  evil  intentions,  falsehoods  about  the 
German  people  and  the  German  leaders,  were 
thrown  into  the  editorial  offices  from  the 
English  cables.  The  Germans  had  no  chance. 
The  papers  reproduced  these  reports  simply 
as  they  received  them;  the  public  in  its  ex- 
cited frame  of  mind  accepted  them  without  a 
grain  of  salt. 

This  at  once  gave  to  public  opinion  a  vivid 
impulse  against  Germany,  and  this  first 
impulse  of  the  crowd  worked  havoc  in  the 
editorial  rooms.  The  newspapers,  always 
eager  to  cater  to  the  appetite  of  the  masses, 
wanted  to  serve  this  new  anti-German  in- 
stinct. The  result  has  been  that  they  have' 
not  only  reproduced  the  colored  news  but 
exaggerated  its  one-sidedness  and  have  be- 
come more  Catholic  than  the  Pope.  Every 
hateful  bit  of  cable  news  must  now  flare  out 
in  big  headlines.  It  is  a  systematic  stirring- 
up  of  the  anti-German  sentiment,  and  the  ab- 
normal increase  of  suggestibility  in  the  mind 
of  the  masses  has  deprived  them  of  the 
power  to  discriminate,  to  judge,  to  be  fair. 

Those  who  are  shocked  by  this  wild  onrush 
of  anti-German  sentiment  ought  not  to  think 

19 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

only  of  their  heartfelt  pain  and  distress  of 
to-day;  they  ought  to  think  of  the  threaten- 
ing dangers  of  to-morrow.  This  clash  of 
public  opinion  is  not  comparable  to  the 
wrangling  on  political  issues.  If  America 
allows  the  spreading  of  such  bitterness 
toward  the  German  and  Austrian  nations 
from  which  almost  a  fourth  of  the  American 
population  descended,  the  American  atmos- 
phere itself  will  become  poisoned.  The  inner 
harmony  of  the  nation  will  be  threatened. 
Ajnerica  must  remain  neutral,  must  listen 
patiently  to  both  sides  and  must  be  ready  to 
sympathize  with  the  defeated,  wherever  man- 
kind suffers.  But  more  than  that,  American 
public  opinion  will  necessarily  have  influence 
on  the  war  itself.  Those  who  foster  this 
blind  hatred  for  the  land  of  the  Teutons  are 
morally  pushing  American  citizens  into  the 
service  of  the  Czar.  America  is  ordained  to 
be  the  great  mediator  in  this  world  struggle, 
as  the  one  great  nation  which  is  not  imme- 
diately involved. 

At  least  one  duty  falls  at  once  on  everyone 
who  recognizes  how  public  opinion  has  been 
led  astray :  the  other  side  must  be  set  forth. 
There  is  so  little  acquaintance  with  the  true 

20 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

causes  of  the  war,  such  grotesque  misunder- 
standing of  the  true  conditions,  such  dis- 
torted perspective  of  European  policies,  that 
no  one  who  knows  the  truth  has  a  right  to 
shirk  this  duty  of  proclaiming  it.  Almost  a 
week  of  the  war  has  passed  by;  so  far  I  see 
not  a  single  word  against  this  unfair  treat- 
ment of  Germany.  But  someone  must  shout 
his  "I  accuse"  against  this  sentiment  of  hate 
and  must  demand  fair  play  from  the  masses 
who  are  eager  to  lynch. 

Can  the  Americans  blame  me  for  speaking 
the  first  word?  Have  I  not  done  exactly  the 
same  for  them  on  European  soil?  I  was 
brought  up  in  Europe's  unfair  prejudices 
against  America.  In  Germany,  in  France,  in 
England,  everywhere,  a  silly  caricature  of 
the  true  American  prevailed — the  vulgar, 
semi-cultured  American  who  does  not  know 
anything  but  smartness  and  the  chase  of  the 
dollar.  As  soon  as  I  recognized  the  brutal 
unfairness  of  these  European  ideas,  I  felt  it 
as  my  personal  task  to  fight  this  anti- Ameri- 
can sentiment  in  Europe.  From  ever  new 
angles,  I  drew  the  picture  of  the  true  Ameri- 
can, full  of  idealism  and  spiritual  enthusiasm 
and  fairness;  and  my  efforts  were  not  in 

21 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

vain.  When  the  Spanish- American  War  was 
at  its  height,  not  a  few  German  papers 
boasted  of  their  anti-American  feeling.  It 
remained  mild  and  was  incomparable  to  the 
hatred  against  Germany  which  we  see  around 
us  now.  Yet  I  left  no  chance  unused ;  I  bom- 
barded that  anti- Americanism  day  by  day, 
and  the  effects  were  felt.  What  I  have  done 
so  persistently  for  twenty  years  in  the  in- 
terest of  America  may  I  not  do  for  twenty 
weeks  now  in  the  interest  of  my  fatherland? 
I  have  learned,  like  so  many  Germans  in 
America,  to  see  both  countries  with  the  eyes 
of  love  and  to  feel  that  the  mutual  under- 
standing of  the  two  countries  and  their  mu- 
tual fairness  are  daily  needs  in  times  of 
peace :  how  much  more  are  they  needed  when 
the  emotions  are  confused,  and  the  world  is 
wild,  and  mankind  is  drunk  with  blood. 

Fortunately  the  American  newspapers 
have  often  proved  their  trust  in  my  sincerity. 
I  shall  not  fail  them.  I  have  begun  at  home. 
The  editor  of  the  Boston  Herald  has  asked 
me  to  say  a  frank  word  for  the  German  side. 
I  am  giving  the  following  plea  for  justice. 


22 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

FAIR    PLAY 

The  European  war  broke  into  the  calm  of  our 
summer,  quick  and  unexpected,  but  still  quicker 
and  still  more  unexpected  by  any  lover  of  fair 
play  was  the  vehement  turn  of  the  American  press 
for  the  Russians  and  against  the  Germans.  What- 
ever Germany  or  Austria  did  was  seen  through 
the  spectacles  of  the  enemy.  Their  motives  ap- 
peared tainted,  their  actions  against  the  rules  of 
the  game;  they  had  no  just  cause  and  no  morals; 
they  were  not  worthy  of  American  sympathy.  Of 
course,  some  pretext  can  be  found  for  every  par- 
tiality, and  it  is  not  difficult  to  foresee  how  this 
game  can  be  played  on.  If  Germany's  enemies 
are  defeated,  the  American  nation  must  be  with 
them  because  it  is  always  with  the  weakest,  al- 
ways with  the  under  dog;  but  if  they  are  vic- 
torious, the  American  nation  will  be  with  them 
too,  because  it  loves  a  spirited  fighter  and  a  tri- 
umphant power.  Yet  it  is  just  Germany  which 
dares  a  spirited  fight  and  which  is  the  weaker, 
forced  to  fight,  two  nations  against  five. 

The  naked  news  which  the  cable  brings  helps  on 
this  cruel  game.  The  average  American  reader 
has  no  idea  how  much  anti-German  feeling  is  in- 
fused into  the  so-called  facts  which  are  sent  over 
the  ocean.  He  sees  that  the  news  is  dated  from 
Vienna  or  Berlin  and  he  does  not  know  that  most 
of  the  American  correspondents  on  the  continent 
for  many  years  have  been  Englishmen  who  never 

23 
» 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

saw  America  and  who  serve  first  of  all  their  home 
papers.  And  even  the  few  American  journalists 
on  the  spot  devote  most  of  their  energies  to  Lon- 
don papers  and  receive  from  there  the  daily  ad- 
vice and  the  daily  prejudice  of  English  rivalry. 

But  does  the  news  at  least  find  fair  play  when 
it  arrives?  What  the  French  or  the  English  gov- 
ernment proclaims  stands  gloriously  on  the  first 
page;  what  the  German  government  replies  is 
hidden  somewhere  in  a  corner  of  the  fifth.  When 
Germany  goes  through  Belgium,  America  shares 
the  indignation  of  England  to  which  it  serves  as 
a  welcome  pretext.  But  that  France  went  into 
Belgium  first  is  kept  a  secret  in  most  American 
papers.  This  means  playing  the  reporter's  game 
with  loaded  dice. 

Yet  even  the  kind  of  news  which  is  dumped  on 
us  does  not  justify  the  editorial  temper  with  which 
especially  the  New  York  papers  appeal  to  our 
sense  of  superiority  over  medieval  Germany. 
Typical  is  the  way  in  which  the  decisions  and 
deeds  of  the  emperors  are  always  treated  as  if  they 
were  purely  personal  autocratic  caprices  without 
inner  contact  with  the  national  life.  This  better 
than  anything  whips  up  the  democratic  spirit  of 
the  new  world.  Who  stops  to  consider  that  in  the 
hour  of  war,  and  even  of  danger  before  the  war, 
the  American  President  has  more  personal  power 
than  any  emperor  except  the  Czar;  and  even  he 
would  be  swept  away  if  he  obstructed  the  will  of 
the  people.    Children  like  to  fancy  that  kings  run 

24 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

about  with  golden  crowns  on  their  heads  and  with 
purple  cloaks.  It  is  hardly  less  childlike  to  imag- 
ine that  a  proclamation  like  that  of  the  Emperor 
Franz  Josef  was  written  by  him  personally  and  to 
construe  it  as  if  he  made  war  on  Servia  because 
he  wanted  to  take  personal  vengeance  for  the 
murder  of  his  heir.  Even  the  distant  spectator 
ought  to  have  seen  that  the  whole  tremendous 
pressure  of  the  Austrian  nation  was  necessary  to 
force  the  old  Emperor  into  a  war  which  he  re- 
sisted with  all  the  instincts  of  a  man  who  has  suf- 
fered much  and  who  wants  at  last  his  peace  and 
rest. 

Is  it  really  possible  to  doubt  that  Emperor 
William,  desired  nothing  but  honorable  peace  with 
all  the  world?  For  twenty-five  years  he  has  been 
the  most  efficient  power  for  European  peace.  He 
has  done  more  for  it  than  all  the  European  peace 
societies  together,  and  however  often  the  world 
seemed  at  the  verge  of  war  his  versatile  mind 
averted  the  danger.  He  knew  too  well  and  the 
whole  German  people  knew  too  well  that  the  in- 
comparable cultural  and  industrial  growth  of  the 
nation  since  the  foundation  of  the  young  empire 
would  be  horribly  threatened  by  the  risks  of  war. 
Can  any  sane  man  really  believe  the  slander  that 
all  was  a  long  prepared  game  which  Austria  was 
to  start  and  in  which  Germany  would  willfully 
force  the  furies  of  war  into  the  Russian  realm? 

No!  this  time  every  effort  was  in  vain,  and  all 
good  will  for  peace  was  doomed  because  the  issue 

25 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

between  the  onnishing  Russian  world  and  the 
German  world  had  grown  to  an  overpowering 
force.  The  struggle  between  the  two  civilizations 
was  imminent,  and  where  such  a  historic  world 
conflict  arises,  the  will  of  individuals  is  crushed 
until  they  serve  the  will  of  the  nations.  The  Slavs 
of  the  Southeast,  the  Servians,  had  defeated  their 
oppressors,  the  Turks.  It  was  inevitable  that  their 
new  strength  should  push  them  to  ambitious  plans. 
It  was  necessary  that  they  should  aim  toward  a 
new  great  Slavic  empire  Avhich  would  border  the 
sea  and  embrace  Austria's  Slavic  possessions. 
That  had  to  mean  the  end  of  Austria,  the  crum- 
bling of  its  historic  power.  Such  an  inner,  pas- 
sionate conflict,  such  an  issue  of  existence  must 
lead  to  explosions.  Servians  killed  the  Arch- 
duke. That  was  Austria's  opportunity  for  an  ef- 
fort to  crush  the  power  which  aimed  toward  its 
downfall.  But  it  was  no  less  necessary  historically 
that  the  largest  Slavic  nation,  that  the  Russians 
should  feel  that  Servia's  cause  was  their  own, 
Russia  knew  well  that  while  it  had  recovered  from 
the  wounds  of  the  Japanese  war  the  Russian 
strength  was  still  unequal  to  that  of  the  German 
nations,  but  it  knew  also  that  it  could  rely  on 
France 's  latent  longing  to  revenge  itself  for  Alsace 
and  on  England's  grumbling  jealousy  of  the  great 
German  rival  in  the  world's  markets.  At  last  the 
chances  seemed  splendid  to  strike  the  long  delayed 
blow  of  the  Eastern  world  against  the  German. 
The  Czar  was  unable  to  resist  the  gigantic  pressure 

26 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

of  the  hour ;  his  government  mobilized  against  both 
Austria  and  Germany. 

Is  there  really  any  sense  in  blaming  the  German 
Emperor  for  actually  declaring  war  before  this 
Russian  mobilization  was  completed  and  before 
Germany  by  such  loss  of  time  would  have  been 
brought  to  certain  destruction?  Four  times  he 
urged  the  Czar  to  abstain  from  the  moving  of  the 
Russian  troops  to  the  frontier;  most  willingly  he 
undertook  to  urge  Austria  to  new  negotiations. 
But  the  world  contrast  of  the  two  civilizations 
was  too  deep ;  Russia  could  not  forego  its  unique 
chances,  and  so  it  continued  passionately  to  mo- 
bilize, trusting  that  the  French  guns  would  start  of 
themselves.  The  German  Emperor  would  have 
shamefully  neglected  his  duties  if  he  had  quietly 
waited  until  the  Russian  armies  were  brought  to- 
gether from  the  far  East.  He  had  to  strike  as 
soon  as  the  war  was  certain,  he  therefore  had  to 
go  through  the  formality  of  declaring  war.  But  it 
was  Russia  which  made  the  war,  and  it  was  part 
of  Russia's  war-making  that  it  forced  Germany 
to  declare  the  war  first.  America  undertook, 
without  such  a  deep  inner  conflict,  a  punitive  ex- 
pedition against  Mexico,  not  unlike  that  of  Austria 
against  Servia.  If  at  that  time  Japan  had  de- 
clared that  it  could  not  tolerate  such  hostility  to 
Mexico  and  had  sent  all  its  warships  toward  Cali- 
fornia, would  the  President  have  genially  waited 
until  the  Japanese  cruisers  entered  the  Golden 
Gate    instead    of   putting    an    ultimatum    to    the 

27 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

Mikado  saying  that  unless  the  ships  stopped  it 
would  mean  war? 

In  this  historic  situation  neither  Russia  nor  Ger- 
many could  really  act  otherwise.  The  great  con- 
flict of  civilizations  was  necessarily  stronger  than 
the  mere  wishes  of  peaceful  individuals.  But  if  it 
is  such  a  gigantic  conflict  of  Russian  and  Germanic 
culture,  the  sympathies  of  the  progressive  Amer- 
ican nation  ought  not  to  be  so  willfully  misled  and 
ought  not  to  be  whipped  into  the  camp  of  the 
Cossacks.  Americans  ought  not  to  rejoice  when 
the  uncultured  hordes  of  the  East  march  over  the 
frontier  and  aim  toward  the  most  eastern  German 
city — toward  Konigsberg — the  town  of  Immanuel 
Kant. 

If  this  war  means  such  an  inevitable  conflict  of 
the  Russian  and  the  Germanic  world,  at  least  it 
ought  to  be  clear  to  everyone  who  can  think  histori- 
cally, that  it  belongs  to  the  type  of  war  for  which 
the  world  as  yet  knows  no  substitute,  the  one  type 
of  war  which  in  spite  of  the  terrible  losses  is  ul- 
timately moral.  Surely  no  comment  on  this  fight 
of  the  nations  is  more  absurd  than  the  frivolous 
cry  that  this  is  an  immoral  war.  Every  war  for 
commercial  ends  or  for  personal  glory  or  for  mere 
aggrandizement  or  for  revenge  may  be  called  im- 
moral, and  thus  the  feelings  with  which  French- 
men and  Englishmen  join  the  Eastern  forces  might 
justly  be  accused.  But  both  Russians  and  Ger- 
mans stand  here  on  moral  ground,  as  both  are 
willing  to  sacrifice  labor  and  life  for  the  conserva- 

28 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

tion  of  their  national  culture  and  very  existence. 
Since  the  days  of  Napoleon,  Germany  has  never 
gone  into  a  war  which  was  more  justified  by  the 
conscience  of  history. 

To  be  sure,  there  is  no  lack  of  elements  in  this 
war  which  do  hurt  the  moral  feeling.  In  victory 
or  defeat,  Germans  will  hardly  forget  the  flight  of 
Italy,  which,  under  the  flimsiest  subterfuges,  has 
deserted  its  allies  in  the  hour  of  need.  And  im- 
moral above  all  is  the  effort  of  the  world  to  stran- 
gle the  spirit  of  Germany  by  the  mere  number  of 
enemies.  That  truly  is  not  fair,  no  moral  fight,  if 
Germany  and  Austria  are  not  to  stand  against 
Russia  and  Servia  alone  which  together  have  a 
population  equal  to  that  of  the  two  opponents,  but 
are  also  attacked  from  behind  by  France  and  Eng- 
land, perhaps  by  Roumania  and  Japan,  and  last 
but  not  least  by  the  misled  public  opinion  of 
America. 

And  this  answers  at  once  the  pointed  question 
which  many  American  papers  have  discussed  since 
the  war  began,  the  question  whether  the  whole  sys- 
tem is  not  fundamentally  wrong,  whether  the  arma- 
ments which  were  planned  to  protect  countries  and 
to  keep  the  balance  and  harmony  have  not  thrown 
them  into  a  destructive  war,  and  whether  it  would 
not  have  been  better  to  rely  on  international  arbi- 
tration throughout  the  world.  The  grouping  of 
this  war  shows  why  Germany  would  have  trampled 
on  its  own  sacred  rights  had  she  laid  the  armor 
away  and  relied  on  the  judgment  of  the  other  na- 

29 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

tions.  Would  she  have  had  the  slightest  chance 
for  a  fair  judgment  if  the  economic  rivalry  in 
England,  the  vanity  of  revenge  in  France,  the 
aversion  of  a  lower  culture  in  Russia  and  political 
jealousy  in  all  Europe  had  been  combined  against 
her  in  an  unholy  alliance?  The  jury  would  have 
been  packed,  prejudice  would  have  swept  the 
courtroom.  No:  unless  the  Cossacks  with  their 
pogroms  were  to  crush  the  culture  of  Germany 
she  had  simply  no  resort  left  but  to  trust  in  her 
sword  and  in  her  prayer. 

Postscript 

Habent  sua  fata  libelli ;  in  the  weeks  since 
its  publication  the  "Fair  Play"  article  has 
been  reprinted  in  more  than  fifty  large 
papers  throughout  the  country  and  has 
brought  forth  a  flood  of  letters  to  the  editors 
for  and  against  my  plea.  The  first  breach 
has  been  made  and  since  then  hundreds  have 
rushed  forward.  The  wall  has  not  yet  really 
been  battered  down.  The  anti-German  sen- 
timent is  still  strong,  but  at  least  on  the  edi- 
torial pages  of  the  best  newspapers  the  de- 
sire to  do  justice  to  the  German  side  can  be 
felt.  The  high  tide  of  bitterness  is  beginning 
to  recede,  and  no  longer  is  every  bit  of  news 
favorable  to  Germany  hidden  in  dark  cor- 

30 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

ners.  Young  Viereck's  brilliant  weekly  The 
Fatherland  is  helping  splendidly.  The  Ger- 
man-Ajnerican  National  Alliance  under 
Hexamer's  leadership  is  eagerly  active. 
The  Germanistic  societies  are  wide  awake. 
Forcible  voices  are  heard  in  the  protest 
meetings  of  the  German-Americans  from 
Boston  to  Chicago  and  farther  West. 

Every  day  the  situation  improves;  the 
public  gets  tired ;  more  and  more  public  men 
demand  at  least  justice,  if  we  cannot  have 
the  truth,  and  the  newspapers  are  beginning 
to  yield  to  this  mood  of  the  morning  after. 
A  paragraph  from  the  New  York  Tribune  is 
to-day  making  the  rounds  through  the  press. 
It  says:  ''The  first  authentic  reports  from 
American  tourists  trapped  in  Germany  by 
mobilization  are  coming  through.  They  com- 
pletely refute  the  earlier  rumors  of  abuse  and 
insult.  Americans  arriving  in  Amsterdam 
from  Berlin  told  countless  stories  of  kindness 
and  needed  assistance  at  the  hands  of  Ger- 
mans, It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  this 
was  exactly  what  every  fair-minded  person 
expected. ' '  Certainly  every  fair-minded  per- 
son expected  it  and  therefore  discredited  the 
shameful  rumors  which  ought  never  to  have 

31 


THE    WAR   AND    AMERICA 

found  their  way  into  a  decent  American  pa- 
per. But  the  fair-minded  persons  kept  si- 
lence and  unfair-minded  ones  boisterously 
filled  all  the  channels  of  public  opinion.  Soon 
we  shall  hear  that  all  the  other  wild  rumors 
and  denunciations  of  the  Kaiser,  of  the  army, 
of  the  government,  of  the  people,  are  ''com- 
pletely refuted ' '  and  that ' '  every  fair-minded 
person  expected  it." 

But  the  German  cables  remain  cut ;  all  the 
news  is  censored  in  London  and  Paris.  We 
must  expect  that  the  first  version  of  every 
future  event  will  also  be  a  slap  in  the  face  of 
German  sympathizers,  and  only  a  week  later 
when  the  interest  has  gone  into  other  direc- 
tions the  truth  about  the  half-forgotten  event 
will  leak  out.  Yet  even  the  most  suggestible 
reader  is  beginning  to  discover  the  trick  when 
it  is  played  too  often.  When  the  big  head- 
lines tell  him  again  that  the  German  soldiers 
slaughtered  the  babies  yesterday  in  the  town 
which  they  captured,  he  will  conjecture  for 
himself  that  in  reality  they  probably  slaugh- 
tered some  chickens  for  which  they  paid  in 
full. 

Even  the  causes  of  the  war  are  slowly 
being  seen  with  the  eyes  of  justice.    Leading 

32 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

men  have  returned  from  Europe  and  say 
frankly  that  America  blundered  when  it 
blamed  the  Emperor  instead  of  the  Czar. 
Even  the  strongest  master  of  international 
law  in  the  country,  the  honored  dean  of  Co- 
lumbia University,  Professor  Burgess,  has 
called  a  halt  to  the  reckless  public  opinion. 
He  knows  the  politics  of  Europe  as  few 
Americans  can.  His  arguments  are  per- 
fectly convincing:  it  is  Kussia's  war  against 
Germany  with  the  selfish  support  of  England 
and  France.  The  anti-German  sentiment  can 
to-day  no  longer  find  any  arguments  of  his- 
tory or  of  politics  or  of  international  law; 
it  is  nothing  but  prejudice. 

Anyway,  we  have  to-day  two  large  camps^ 
in  the  country:  the  one  controlled  by  anti- 
German  sentiment;  the  other  by  fair  play 
sentiment;  and  the  second  is  growing  with 
every  hour.  At  first  only  a  few  Germans 
gathered  there;  rapidly  it  filled  with  Ger- 
man-Americans; the  Irish  swept  in  who  did 
not  trust  the  Home  Rule  peace ;  the  Russian 
Jews  joined  who  laughed  at  the  Czar's  flat- 
teries; the  Swedish  and  the  Norwegians 
came  who  foresaw  the  fate  of  the  North  if 
Russia    should    triumph;    and    slowly    the 

33 


THE   WAR   AND    AMERICA 

Anglo-Saxon  Americans  kept  breaking  off 
from  the  majority,  demanding  fairness  in- 
stead of  blind  hostility.  And  this  fair  play 
party  is  already  strong  enough  not  only  to 
make  declamations  and  appeals  but  to  en- 
force neutrality  in  the  deeds  of  the  common- 
wealth. Two  weeks  ago  the  banking  firm  of 
Morgan  would  have  found  jubilant  approval 
throughout  the  country  for  its  plan  to  raise 
a  great  war  loan  for  France,  a  subtle  scheme 
of  anti-German  war-making  which  the  inter- 
national law  could  not  prohibit.  Now  the 
reception  is  cool ;  the  fair  play  party  has  be- 
come a  power.  Even  the  politicians  figure 
it  out  that  election  days  may  be  reckoning 
days.  It  may  be  safer  for  them  to  be  fair 
than  to  be  unfair  in  a  European  conflict,  and 
the  political  ''safety  first"  movement  makes 
them  forget  what  they  wrote  in  those  first 
ugly  days  of  August.  The  chief  point  is  that 
the  fair  play  party  is  steadily  growing,  and 
the  anti-German  party  from  day  to  day 
shrinking.  In  the  fair  play  party  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  himself  has  em- 
phatically taken  the  leadership.  The  leader 
of  the  anti- German  party — leader  by  age,  by 
authority,  by  mastery  of  diction  and  by  the 

34 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

importance  which  the  press  gives  to  his  ut- 
terances— is  Charles  W.  Eliot. 

The  programme  of  the  two  leaders  is  clear 
and  simple.  President  Woodrow  "Wilson 
writes :  ' '  Every  man  who  really  loves  Amer- 
ica will  think  and  speak  in  the  true  spirit  of 
neutrality,  which  is  the  spirit  of  impartiality 
and  fairness  and  friendliness  to  all  con- 
cerned. ...  It  will  be  easy  to  excite  pas- 
sion and  difficult  to  allay  it.  Those  responsi- 
ble for  exciting  it  will  assume  a  heavy  re- 
sponsibility, responsibility  for  no  less  a 
thing  than  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  may  be  divided  in  camps  of  hostile 
opinion,  hot  against  each  other,  involved  in 
the  war  itself  in  impulse  and  opinion  if  not 
in  action.  .  .  .  We  must  be  impartial  in 
thought  as  well  as  in  action,  must  put  a  curb 
upon  our  sentiments.  ...  I  venture,  there- 
fore, my  fellow  countrymen,  to  speak  a  sol- 
emn word  of  warning  to  you  against  the 
deepest,  most  subtle,  most  essential  breach 
of  neutrality,  which  may  spring  out  of  par- 
tisanship, out  of  passionately  taking  sides." 

The  leader  of  the  opposite  party,  Mr. 
Charles  W.  Eliot,  on  the  other  hand  writes — 
and  some  papers  have  for  evident  reasons 

35 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

^ven  larger  display  to  his  words  than  to 
those  of  the  President — the  following  ap- 
peal: ''Although  the  people  of  the  United 
States  mean  to  maintain  faithfully  a  legal 
neutrality,  they  are  not  and  cannot  be  neu- 
tral or  indifferent  as  to  the  ultimate  outcome 
of  this  titanic  struggle.  It  already  seems  to 
them  that  France,  England  and  Russia  are 
fighting  for  freedom  and  civilization.  ..." 
''American  sympathies  and  hopes  cannot 
possibly  be  neutral  for  the  whole  history  and 
present  state  of  American  liberty  forbids. 
For  the  present  thinking  Americans  can  only 
try  to  appreciate  the  scope  and  real  issue  of 
this  formidable  convulsion  and  so  be  ready 
to  seize  every  opportunity  that  may  present 
itself  to  further  the  cause  of  human  free- 
"dom.  ..."  Germany  has  entered  into  this 
war  "rashly,  and  selfishly,  and  in  a  bar- 
barous spirit." 

Those  who  belong  to  the  fair  play  party 
must  gratefully  hail  every  word  of  President 
Wilson  and  deeply  regret  every  word  of  his 
eloquent  opponent.  But  they  would  not  only 
dissent  from  this  advice  to  the  nation  to 
seize  every  opportunity  for  attacking  Ger- 
many, but  they  would  insist  that  even  the 

36 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

facts  which  Mr.  Eliot  gives  in  his  surprising 
proclamation  are  utterly  wrong.  There  is 
nothing  rash  in  Germany's  going  to  war. 
After  almost  forcing  peace  on  Europe  for 
twenty-seven  years  under  most  difficult  con- 
ditions, the  Emperor  had  again  made  every 
effort  to  preserve  peace  while  the  Czar  con- 
tinued mobilization;  but  finally  there  came 
the  hour  in  which  any  further  delay  would 
have  meant  certain  defeat  for  Germany. 
Nor  was  there  anything  selfish,  as  Germany 
had  obviously  not  the  slightest  desire  for 
territorial  aggrandizement  in  Europe,  but 
had  only  the  one  aim  to  protect  itself  against 
the  armies  of  the  Cossacks.  Even  when  the 
war  with  Russia  had  become  unavoidable, 
Germany  strained  every  effort  to  keep  peace 
with  France.  And  when  even  that  failed,  it 
expressed  its  readiness  to  guarantee  that  it 
would  leave  intact  not  only  France  but  even 
the  French  colonies,  if  at  least  England 
would  remain  at  peace.  But  all  these  na- 
tions insisted  on  war — was  it  selfish  that 
Germany  dared  to  defend  itself? 

The  ''barbarous  spirit"  refers  evidently 
to  those  gruesome  stories  of  German  cruel- 
ties with  which  the  enemies  of  Germany  have 

37 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

tried  to  discredit  its  cause.  To  be  sure,  even 
they  read  like  mild  girls'  stories  compared 
wdth  the  reports  of  the  French,  the  Belgian, 
the  Russian  atrocities  with  which  the  Ger- 
man papers  and  letters  are  filled.  Is  it  really 
possible  to  condemn  a  nation  of  highest  cul- 
tural achievements  for  barbarism  on  the 
basis  of  such  testimony  for  the  prosecution? 
— the  Salem  trials  of  the  witches  were  more 
objective.  The  climax,  we  hear,  were  Ger- 
man cnielties  in  Belgium.  They  transformed 
all  Louvain  into  a  mere  heap  of  ashes.  A 
few  days  later  we  heard  that  the  cathedral 
and  the  city  hall  and  the  art  treasures  had 
not  been  touched.  Still  a  day  later  we  heard 
that  the  Belgian  people  were  coming  back 
to  Louvain  to  their  w^ork.  At  the  day  of  this 
writing  the  papers  bring  over  the  ocean  the 
report  of  the  first  investigation  of  the  case 
by  unpartisan  Americans.  Representatives 
of  the  Associated  Press,  of  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post,  of  the  Chicago  Daily  News, 
and  of  the  Tribune,  have  joined  in  an  exam- 
ination of  the  true  facts ;  they  say  and  pledge 
their  professional  and  personal  word  for  the 
truth  of  the  statements :  We  unite  in  declar- 
ing   the    rumors     ''of    German    atrocities 

38 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

groundless;  after  spending  two  weeks  with 
and  accompanying  the  troops  upward  of  one 
hundred  miles,  we  are  unable  to  report  a 
single  instance  unprovoked.  We  are  also  un- 
able to  confirm  rumors  of  mistreatment  of 
prisoners  or  noncombatants  with  the  German 
columns.  This  is  true  of  Louvain,  of  Brus- 
sels, of  Luneville,  and  Nanteuil.  We  visited 
other  places  without  substantiating  a  single 
wanton  brutality.  Numerous  investigated 
rumors  proved  groundless.  Everywhere  we 
have  seen  Germans  paying  for  purchases 
and  respecting  property  rights  as  well  as 
according  civilians  every  consideration.  The 
discipline  of  the  German  soldiers  is  excel- 
lent, as  we  observed." 

But  Mr.  Eliot  bases  his  horror  of  Germany 
also  on  the  alleged  facts  that  there  the  mon- 
arch alone  can  make  war,  while  the  national 
executive  in  a  true  liberal  state  ought  not  to 
^'use  the  national  forces  in  fight  until  a  thor- 
oughly informed  national  assembly,  thinking 
with  deliberation,  has  agreed  to  that  use." 
The  fact  is  that  not  the  Kaiser,  but  the  Ger- 
man upper  chamber,  the  Bundesrat,  has  to 
decide  on  war,  and  that  the  lower  chamber, 
the  Reichstag,   has   to  vote   the   necessary 

39 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

funds.  Both  were  unanimous,  including  the 
Social  Democratic  party,  and  their  delibera- 
tions took  more  time  than  those  which  led  to 
the  American  war  movement  against  Mexico. 
Mr.  Eliot,  moreover,  is  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Germany  of  education  and  art 
and  science  is  against  this  war  and  is  any- 
how not  in  sympathy  with  Germany's  im- 
perialism. The  real  people,  he  thinks,  are 
driven  into  the  war  by  an  aristocratic 
bureaucracy.  Englishmen  to  whom  commer- 
cialism is  everything  have  often  spoken  like 
this.  They  would  prefer  that  the  Germans 
write  poems  and  music  as  in  the  good  old 
times,  but  leave  colonies  and  world  trade  to 
Great  Britain.  Yet  America  is  not  Eng- 
land's business  partner.  As  to  the  people  at 
large,  one  figure  speaks  loudly  enough:  in 
spite  of  the  army  of  more  than  three  mil- 
lions, still  two  millions  more  have  offered 
themselves  as  volunteers,  far  more  than  the 
government  can  accept.  On  the  same  day 
that  Mr.  Eliot's  appeal  for  anti-neutrality 
appeared,  the  noted  leader  of  the  American 
pacifists,  Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead,  wired  from 
London  a  report  about  the  German  situation. 
He  had  spent  the  weeks  of  war  in  Germany 

40 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

and  had  really  studied  the  situation.  He 
says:  ''Apparently  there  is  not  a  man  or 
woman  in  Germany  who  does  not  believe 
Germany's  case  to  be  absolutely  just  and 
right;  they  think  the  war  is  an  imperative 
defense  of  the  country  against  the  surround- 
ing circle  of  jealous  enemies.  The  Social 
Democrats  take  this  position  as  well  as 
others. ' '  Mr.  Mead  saw  many  of  the  leading 
scholars  and  educators.  ''All  spoke  essen- 
tially alike  and  statements  to  the  same  effect 
were  published  while  I  was  in  Berlin  by 
Professor  Harnack,  Ernest  Haeckel  and  Ru- 
dolf Eucken."  Who  are  the  people  whom 
Mr.  Eliot  wants  to  save  from  the  ruthlessness 
of  the  Emperor  if  not  the  Social  Democrats 
and  the  two  million  volunteers?  Who  are 
the  men  of  culture,  if  not  the  Harnacks  and 
Haeckels  and  Euckens  ?  The  Emperor  acted 
as  their  agent.  No  president  of  a  republic 
could  have  been  more  the  spokesman  of  a  na- 
tion. 

Mr.  Eliot  finally  speaks  of  the  German  and 
Austrian  armies  as  "brute  forces."  Is  the 
French  army  or  the  English  navy  less  a 
brute  force  ?  Would  it  have  been  more  demo- 
cratic and  wiser  for  Germany  to  be  satisfied 

41 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

with  an  army  of  tender  mildness?  It  would 
have  been  crushed  by  its  neighbors  at  once 
and  completely.  The  leading  civil  naval  au- 
thority of  America,  Mr.  G.  v.  L.  Meyer,  has 
already  declared  that  the  European  war  of- 
fers to  America  only  one  great  lesson,  name- 
ly, that  America  must  build  at  least  sixteen 
dreadnaughts  in  order  to  control  the  Pacific 
as  fully  as  England  now  controls  the  Atlan- 
tic. Is  that  less  brute  force?  Can  anything 
but  brute  force  be  in  question  as  long  as 
war  is  not  abolished  entirely?  Does  that 
make  Germany  contemptible  while  it  makes 
England  admirable?  No:  Mr.  Eliot's  argu- 
ment against  President  Wilson  cannot  be 
maintained. 

The  fair  play  party  does  not  consider  it  a 
duty  to  find  a  moral  culprit  in  this  war,  to 
bear  the  blame  and  indignation  of  the  world. 
There  may  be  no  moral  wrong  on  any  side. 
Every  one  of  the  great  nations  did  that  which 
was  morally  right  and  necessary  in  its  his- 
toric development.  This  war  might  have 
been  delaj^ed  a  month,  perhaps  a  year,  but  it 
had  to  come:  the  European  tension  had  be- 
come too  strong.  Germany  and  Russia  had 
come  to  a  point  where  no  possible  arbitra- 

42 


THE    ANTI-GERIMAN    SENTIMENT 

tion,  but  only  strength  could  determine 
whether  east  Europe  or  central  Europe 
would  control  the  Balkan.  It  was  the  ethical 
duty  of  the  Kussiaiis  to  strain  every  effort 
for  this  expansion  of  their  influence,  and  it 
was  the  ethical  duty  of  the  Germans  and 
Austrians  to  strain  every  effort  to  prevent 
it.  In  the  same  way  it  was  the  moral  right 
of  France  to  make  use  of  any  hour  of  Ger- 
man embarrassment  for  recapturing  its  mili- 
tary glory  by  a  victory  of  revenge.  And  it 
was  the  moral  right  of  England  to  exert  its 
energies  for  keeping  the  control  of  the  seas 
and  for  destroying  the  commercial  rivalry  of 
the  Germans.  No  one  is  to  be  blamed. 
Every  nation,  therefore,  entered  into  this 
war  equally  with  the  feeling  that  it  was 
fighting  for  a  just  and  solemn  cause  and  that 
it  was  performing  its  national  duty.  No 
American  has  the  right  to  destroy  this  moral 
equilibrium  and  to  decide  without  proof  and 
without  historical  understanding  that  the 
one  side  did  morally  right  and  the  other  be- 
haved immorally. 

It  is  quite  a  different  question,  which  may 
well  be  raised  without  interfering  with  fair 
play,  whether  or  not  mistakes  have  been 

43 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

made.  Some  have  said  that  Germany  made 
a  mistake.  It  ought  to  have  deserted  Aus- 
tria in  the  same  way  that  Italy  deserted  it. 
In  that  case  Austria  would  have  been  dis- 
membered by  Russia.  The  Slavic  provinces 
of  Austria  would  have  been  combined  with 
Servia.  Russia  would  have  gained  the  con- 
trol of  the  Balkan,  but  Germany  would  not 
have  been  forced  to  fight  alone  against  five 
nations.  Germany  might  even  have  joined 
Russia  and  would  have  easily  captured  the 
German  parts  of  Austria.  It  would  have 
been  a  great  gain  for  Germany's  territory. 
Yet  the  Germans  are  convinced  that  the  na- 
tion and  the  Emperor  made  no  mistake  when 
they  decided  in  the  opposite  direction.  If 
they  had  not  done  so,  the  result  would  have 
been  an  increase  of  Russian  world  power 
which  they  would  have  considered  a  blow  to 
west  European  civilization.  Above  all,  it 
would  have  been  an  act  of  barbarous  faith- 
lessness. The  pledge  of  assistance  to  Aus- 
tria has  often  been  a  heavy  burden  to  Ger- 
many, but  Germans  have  remained  loyal  to 
it,  as  this  is  not  only  a  routine  agreement 
like  the  neutrality  treaties  which  no  nation 
of  the  old  or  the  new  world  ever  considered 

44 


THE    ANTI-GERMAN    SENTIMENT 

binding  in  an  hour  of  national  life  and  deaths 
but  a  pledge  of  international  honor  which  no 
one  breaks  without  moral  humiliation. 

Many  in  the  fair  play  party,  and  I  am  one 
of  them,  believe  rather  that  a  mistake — not 
a  moral  wrong,  but  a  mistake  of  judgment — 
was  made  by  England  and  France.  They  did 
their  nearest  duty  in  the  interest  of  the  near- 
est good,  the  destruction  of  the  political  and 
commercial  rival  on  the  right  of  the  Rhine. 
Their  mistake  was  not  to  see  that  this  pass- 
ing duty  to  their  countries  was  greatly  out- 
weighed by  a  higher  duty  the  goal  of  which 
lies  further  off.  They  cannot  crush  Germany 
without  helping  Russia  to  an  irresistible 
power  which  ultimately  must  subjugate  the 
whole  western  civilization.  They  sacrifice 
the  lasting  cultural  gain  for  a  short  tempo- 
rary comfort.  They  would  have  served  man- 
kind more  judiciously,  if  they  had  joined 
Germany  in  the  struggle  against  the  Russian 
giant.  Every  American  has  the  right  to 
point  out  such  errors  in  a  historical  spirit. 
That  is  no  attack  against  the  morals  of  a  na- 
tion ;  that  is  no  kindling  of  hatred ;  that  is  in- 
comparable with  the  denunciations  which  the 
anti-German  party  thunders  against  the  one 

45 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

people  which  is  suddenly  attacked  by  the 
guns  of  all  Europe.  America  ought  to  be  no 
more  anti-German  than  anti-French  or  anti- 
English.  America  ought  to  be  the  peace- 
maker of  the  world  and  not  the  pacemaker 
to  any  warring  nation. 


in 

THE  GEEMAN-AMEEICANS 

I  never  before  saw  so  many  American  and 
German  flags  intertwined  as  to-day  in  the 
gaily  decorated  streets  of  Utica.  It  was  a 
splendid  procession  of  American  troops, 
German-American  societies  with  their  ban- 
ners and  picturesque  floats  with  scenes  from 
the  War  of  Independence,  and  from  German 
and  German- American  history.  We  were  to 
unveil  the  statue  of  General  von  Steuben. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  had  streamed  to  the 
town ;  every  house  was  gay  with  waving  flags 
and  with  black,  white  and  red  decorations; 
every  window  crowded  with  cheering 
throngs :  truly  it  was  German  day. 

When  through  the  long  avenue  of  elms  we 
reached  the  monument,  the  sight  from  the 
speaker's  stand  was  overwhelming.  The 
German-American  population  had  streamed 
out  and  ten  thousand  men  and  women  sur- 
rounded the  spot.    The  German  songs  rolled 

47 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

through  the  air;  the  New  York  state  regi- 
ments passed  the  bronze  statue  of  the  great 
soldier.  It  is  a  fine  work  of  art.  You  can 
really  imagine  that  this  was  the  stature  and 
the  gesture  and  the  look  of  that  great  war- 
rior who  served  through  the  Seven  Years' 
War  of  Prussia,  was  adjutant  of  Frederick 
the  Great  and  who  then  gave  up  everything 
which  he  had  in  his  fatherland  to  serve  the 
cause  of  American  independence.  You  see 
in  his  face  that  idealism  and  romanticism  of 
war  which  made  him  unselfishly  throw  away 
his  position  and  income  and  comfort  at  home 
and  offer  his  sword  to  the  congress  of  the 
weak  colonies.  His  features  show  that  mar- 
tial energy  with  which  he  trained  and  or- 
ganized the  American  troops  in  Valley  Forge 
until  the  victory  was  won.  But  at  the  same 
time  this  figure  brings  out  that  noble  genial- 
ity and  chivalrous  kindness  which  made  him 
so  humanly  attractive  through  his  long  sol- 
dier's career,  until  after  a  life  of  war  he 
found  the  peace  of  old  age  here  in  Utica.  It 
is  a  fitting  monument  to  the  man  who  was 
the  right  arm  of  George  Washington.  He 
did  not  seek  the  showy  glory  of  the  battle- 
field, but  behind  the  scenes  he  was  the  or- 

48 


THE    GERMAN-AMERICANS 

ganizer  of  victory.  He  did  effective  work 
silently  as  the  German-Americans  always 
have  done  in  America. 

I  had  been  asked  to  deliver  the  oration  at 
the  unveiling.  I  relied  on  the  inspiration  of 
the  hour.  I  spoke  in  German  language  to 
men  of  German  descent  whose  hearts  were 
aglow  with  solemn  emotion  for  the  land  of 
their  parents  and  grandparents.  I  had  heard 
their  speeches  and  songs  on  the  eve  before  in 
a  large  festival  hall  and  there  the  Watch  on 
the  Rhine  had  resounded  as  I  had  never 
heard  it  before. 

I  spoke  about  the  threefold  meaning  of  this 
monument.  My  favorite  topic  came  first ;  the 
need  of  discipline  in  our  modern  life.  Steu- 
ben found  men  full  of  dash  and  courage,  and 
yet  they  did  not  count  until  he  taught  them 
the  greatest  lesson  in  war  as  in  peace,  the 
lesson  of  subordination,  of  self-control,  of 
obedience.  No  time  ever  needed  this  lesson 
so  much  as  ours.  Our  whole  civilization 
tends  to  make  the  selfish  impulses  and  the 
reckless  instincts  triumphant.  Our  life  has 
lost  its  inner  moral  discipline.  The  spirit 
of  Steuben  is  needed  by  the  American  nation 
in  its  days  of  glory  still  more  than  when  it 

49 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

was  struggling  hard  for  its  independence. 
If  we  had  more  spirit  of  self-control,  it  would 
not  be  possible  for  public  opinion  to  rush 
so  blindly  and  thoughtlessly  into  the  anti- 
German  prejudice  which  is  suddenly  sweep- 
ing the  country. 

The  second  aspect  which  I  emphasized  was 
suggested  by  the  fact  that  German-Ameri- 
cans had  erected  this  monument.  I  said  that 
it  showed  that  the  Germans  in  America  were 
finally  conscious  of  their  position,  of  their 
rights  in  this  country,  and  of  their  duties  to 
it.  Too  long  they  had  lived  under  the  illu- 
sion that  America  was  an  Anglo-Saxon  coun- 
try and  that  all  the  other  racial  stocks  were 
only  tolerated  as  more  or  less  welcome 
guests.  This  idea  had  imposed  on  them  the 
duty  of  throwing  off  their  German  traits  and 
of  imitating  the  English  characteristics. 
This  arbitrary  construction  has  finally  been 
shattered.  The  German-Americans  at  last 
became  aware  that  there  are  no  hosts  and 
guests  in  this  land  and  that  not  England  but 
all  Europe  is  the  mother  country  of  the 
Ajnerican  nation.  The  glory  of  America  re- 
sulted from  the  fact  that  many  races  con- 
tributed their  distinctive  achievements.    The 

50 


THE    GERMAN-AMERICANS 

Germans  have  discovered  how  fundamental 
their  part  has  been  in  the  development  of 
the  American  nation,  how  they,  with  brain 
and  brawn,  have  had  their  noble  share  from 
the  pioneer  days  to  the  present  time. 

A  new  sense  of  rights  with  a  new  sense  of 
duty  and  responsibility  has  filled  them;  a 
new  pride  in  the  work  of  their  ancestors  has 
come  to  them;  and  out  of  this  feeling  they 
turn  to  the  memory  of  a  great  leader  like 
Steuben.  To  do  honor  to  him  is  a  pledge  to 
remain  loyal  to  the  duties  of  the  German- 
American  citizens  toward  America.  No 
German- American  lives  up  to  his  responsi- 
bilities if  he  does  not  try  to  bring  the  very 
best  traits  of  the  land  of  his  ancestors  as  his 
peculiar  contribution  to  the  young  nation  of 
the  new  world.  But  this  is  possible  only  if 
he  never  forgets  that  he  is  of  German  de- 
scent. As  long  as  this  feeling  remains  awake 
in  his  soul,  he  will  not  tolerate  this  great 
glorious  country  to  be  dragged  into  an  un- 
fair stand  toward  the  fatherland  of  Steuben. 

But  finally  I  spoke  of  the  monument  as  a 
symbol  of  America's  gratitude  for  a  German 
man  who  came  to  bring  all  which  he  had 
learned  at  home  to  the  service  of  this  coun- 

51 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

try.  How  many  came  after  him — teachers 
and  scholars,  scientists  and  engineers,  mer- 
chants and  captains  of  industry,  musicians 
and  artists,  ministers  and  reformers!  All 
brought  German  civilization  over  the  ocean. 
But  soon  after  Steuben's  day,  American  in- 
fluences, too,  turned  auspiciously  eastward. 
New  ideas  were  carried  to  the  fatherland.  It 
was  a  giving  and  taking,  a  mutual  exchange : 
in  our  days  no  one  has  a  right  to  ask  who 
gives  more  and  who  takes  more.  The  monu- 
ment is  a  symbol  of  joy  in  this  cordial  inter- 
course which  helps  so  much  toward  mutual 
understanding.  And  only  where  such  under- 
standing exists  can  we  hope  for  sympathy 
and  respect  and  friendship.  We  see  in  the 
passionate  outbursts  against  the  Emperor 
and  Germany  how  much  still  remains 
to  be  done.  ''Fortunately  America  has  now 
been  for  almost  a  hundred  years  at  peace 
with  the  country  against  which  the  American 
armies  fought  under  von  Steuben.  But  with 
the  fatherland  of  Steuben  America  has  al- 
ways been  at  peace.  This  peace  ought  never 
to  be  broken."  A  tremendous  wave  of  ap- 
proval swept  over  the  gigantic  audience  at 
these  words.    In  closing  I  said:  ''The  Ameri- 

52 


THE    GERMAN-AMERICANS 

can  nation  must  maintain  its  neutrality  at 
any  price.  It  has  no  right  to  aid  the  enemies 
of  Germany  as  long  as  it  remains  loyal  to  the 
memory  of  Washington  under  whom  Steuben 
fought  on  this  side  of  the  ocean.  It  must  not 
grudge  the  good  fortune  to  Emperor  William 
if  victory  blesses  his  sword  as  once  before  the 
sword  of  his  great  ancestor,  Frederick,  was 
blessed,  under  whom  Steuben  fought  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ocean. ' '  What  followed  was 
a  demonstration  of  German-American  feel- 
ing, enthusiastic  and  wonderful. 

In  looking  back  to  these  Utica  hours  I  feel 
that  he  calculates  wrongly  with  American 
public  opinion  who  fancies  that  the  twenty- 
five  millions  in  whose  homes  lives  the  mem- 
ory of  German  ancestors  can  be  neglected. 
The  wall  of  anti-German  feeling  will  be 
broken  down  by  the  hammering  of  this  titanic 
power.  Not  long  ago  the  German- Americans 
were  not  aware  of  how  strong  they  were,  or 
rather  they  were  not  strong  because  they 
were  not  aware  of  their  strength.  They 
served  faithfully,  but  did  not  dare  to  insist 
on  respect  and  did  not  venture  to  ask  for 
thanks.  The  last  twenty  years  have  changed 
their  place  in  the  world.    While  the  German 

53 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

iminigration  decreased  and  the  new  incoming 
masses  were  recruited  more  and  more  from 
Italy  and  Turkey  and  Russia,  the  German- 
American  spirit  has  steadily  become 
stronger.  The  German- Americans  have  be- 
come conscious  of  their  duties  in  the  highest 
historic  sense  of  their  mission,  and  they 
demand  their  rights  in  the  shaping  of  the 
country's  fate. 

Their  cause  had  only  one  element  of  weak- 
ness. The  one  great  binding  force  was  the 
memory  of  the  past,  and  not  a  forceful,  posi- 
tive programme.  They  sympathized  with  the 
Republican  party  as  much  as  with  the  Demo- 
cratic party;  their  interests  were  divided 
on  almost  every  economic  question;  religi- 
ously they  were  scattered;  their  common  love 
of  German  literature  and  music  naturally  be- 
came weaker  with  the  second  and  third  gen- 
eration; and  so  it  happened  most  unfortu- 
nately that  only  the  pitiful  stein  of  beer  ap- 
peared the  one  object  of  common  wishes. 
The  fight  against  prohibition,  upon  which  the 
opinions  of  Germans  might  be  just  as  di- 
vided as  upon  any  practical  question  before 
the  nation,  was  artificially  made  the  center 
of  German-American  public  activity;  it  was 

54 


THE    GERMAN-AMERICANS 

bolstered  up  with  great  words  of  personal 
liberty.  Nothing  has  hurt  the  German- 
Americans  in  their  struggle  for  the  place 
which  belongs  to  them  so  much  as  the  illusion 
that  the  negative  side  of  the  prohibition  ques- 
tion can  be  in  our  present  time  a  great  vital 
issue. 

It  was  as  if  the  German- American  masses 
had  only  waited  for  a  really  convincing  goal 
common  to  all  in  order  to  be  filled  with  that 
enthusiasm  which  secures  strength.  The 
lightning  of  the  European  thunderstorm  has 
suddenly  shown  them  their  true  duty.  The 
policy  of  this  country  which  they  love  with 
their  whole  hearts  must  be  one  of  sincere- 
friendship  not  only  with  England  but  also- 
with  Germany.  They  will  break  down  this 
anti-German  agitation;  they  will  punish 
every  effort  to  inject  hatred  of  Germany  into 
the  veins  of  the  American  political  body. 
Their  National  German-American  Alliance 
with  two  and  a  half  million  voters  as  mem- 
bers, their  intellectual  leaders  and  their  eco- 
nomic captains  of  commerce  and  industry,, 
their  farmers  and  their  workingmen,  old  and 
young,  men  and  women,  first  generation  and 
second  and  third,  every  religious  sect.  North 

55 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

Germans  and  South  Germans,  Austrians  and 
Swiss — they  will  be  united  and  will  show  a 
crushing  power  of  which  the  reckless  torch- 
bearers  of  German  hatred  did  not  dream. 

This  European  war  will  not  reach  its  end 
without  being  deeply  influenced  by  American 
public  opinion.  At  an  early  or  at  a  late 
stage,  American  sentiment  will  play  its  role. 
Since  I  heard  the  Watch  on  the  Rhine  thun- 
dering in  the  Mohawk  Valley  I  know  that 
twenty-five  millions  will  take  care  that  this 
national  sentiment  is  ultimately  not  misled 
as  it  has  been  in  the  first  hour  of  confusion. 
They  will  take  care  that  this  powerful  Ameri- 
can influence  cannot  be  prostituted  to  a 
breach  of  neutrality  in  order  to  back  the 
allies  of  Russia  who  are  trying  to  throw  into 
the  dust  America's  staunchest  friend,  the 
German  nation.  Never  until  to-day  have  I 
seen  so  many  American  and  German  flags 
intertwined. 


IV 

THE    THREATENED   PEOVINCES 

The  papers  tliis  morning  brought  a  sketch 
of  Germany  as  it  will  look  after  the  great 
disaster.  England,  they  say,  and  of  course 
they  must  know,  will  be  modest  in  its  de- 
mands, and  will  take  only  the  whole  German 
fleet  and  the  Kiel  canal,  besides  the  cost  of 
the  mobilization.  France,  to  be  sure,  will  in- 
sist on  the  billion  dollars  which  it  had  to  pay 
after  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  together  with 
the  interest  for  forty-four  years,  and  will 
take  not  much  more  land  than  Alsace-Lor- 
raine. Eussia  will  grasp  for  Eastern  Prussia 
with  its  Baltic  seacoast  to  include  Danzig. 
It  was  a  slender  Germany  which  was  left  in 
that  gruesome  picture.  But  how  many 
American  readers  do  really  know  what  it 
would  mean  for  Germany  to  lose  Alsace  and 
Prussia  to  the  Danzig  coast? 

Alsace !  Yesterday  was  the  anniversary  of 
the  battle  of  Weissenburg,  the  first  great 

57 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

struggle  in  the  war  for  Germany's  unity.  To 
the  American  it  is  a  battle  name,  colorless 
and  commonplace.  Weissenburg  is  to  him 
one  of  the  many  little  French  towns  in  the 
French  land  which  the  brutal  force  of  Ger- 
many has  torn  out  of  happy  France  and  has 
crushed  by  blatant  militarism,  and  which,  in 
its  suffering  through  almost  half  a  century, 
longs  to  be  taken  home  into  the  mother  arms 
of  the  French  people.  But  this  is  untrue 
and  a  hundred  times  untrue.  It  may  be  that 
nobody  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific 
knows  better,  and  that  it  is  thus  nobody's 
duty  to  protest.  But  many  a  Fourth  of 
August  I  have  been  on  the  hills  of  Weissen- 
burg and  have  seen  the  graves  of  the  French- 
men and  of  the  Germans  who  fell  on  the 
battlefield  decorated  with  flags  and  wreaths 
by  the  Weissenburg  people.  Weissenburg 
and  all  Alsace  are  to  me  not  geographical 
lines  on  the  map  and  not  political  abstrac- 
tions, but  they  are  part  of  my  life.  There  in 
Weissenburg  where  forty-four  years  ago 
Germany's  glory  began,  I  found  the  happi- 
ness of  my  family  life,  found  there  my  Ger- 
man wife,  had  there  my  wedding  and  my  sil- 
ver wedding,   returned  there  almost  every 

58 


THE    THREATENED    PROVINCES 

summer.    I  must  know  better  than  the  edi- 
torial writer  how  Alsace  feels. 

Alsace  is  a  German  province  with  German 
traditions  and  German  lifeblood.  For  a 
while  French  rule  was  forced  on  it,  but  it 
never  became  French.  In  the  beautiful  little 
old  garden  of  my  wife's  parents  I  can  never 
dream  my  summer  dreams  without  thinking 
of  the  historic  sacredness  of  that  German 
soil.  It  is  part  of  a  large  cloister  garden  in 
which  a  massive  tower  has  been  standing 
since  the  ninth  century.  In  this  garden, 
Monk  Otfried  lived  who  wrote  one  thousand 
years  ago  the  first  German  epic  poem  in 
rhyme.  This  German  tradition  remained  un- 
broken until  Louis  XIV,  after  he  had  laid  in 
ruins  the  castle  of  Heidelberg,  snatched 
Alsace  from  the  German  people.  Then  a 
long  period  of  oppression  began.  This 
French  rule  was  much  more  rigorous  and 
intolerant  than  any  German  rule  after 
1870. 

Moreover  the  Alsatians  were  never  really 
accepted  as  Frenchmen.  In  the  eyes  of  Paris 
they  always  remained  only  half  French ;  their 
French  dialect  appeared  ridiculous.  They 
disliked  France  and  were  disliked  in  France. 

59 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

It  was  no  wonder  that  their  resources  re- 
mained undeveloped.  Even  the  proudest  city 
of  Alsace,  Strassburg,  when  it  came  into  Ger- 
man possession  in  1870,  was  after  all  only 
an  overgrown  village.  To-day  it  is  a  wonder- 
ful, proud  city  with  beautiful  palaces,  with 
one  of  the  best  equipped  universities  of  the 
world,  with  noble  avenues  and  parks,  en- 
riched by  Germany's  good  will  as  much  as  it 
was  held  down  by  France's  indifference  in 
the  past. 

Alsace  would  be  to-day  perfectly  happy  in 
its  natural  German  frame,  if  French  longing 
for  political  revenge  had  not  artificially  kept 
alive  agitation  for  jointure  with  France.  To 
be  sure,  the  German  administration  was  often 
unstable;  there  was  not  sufficient  unity  of 
purpose.  Sometimes  the  effort  was  made  to 
win  the  population  by  overindulgence.  As 
soon  as  such  leniency  was  intolerably  mis- 
used at  the  instigation  of  Paris,  the  regime 
was  changed  to  the  other  extreme  and  the 
German  language  and  German  methods  were 
sternly  insisted  on.  As  soon  as  that  started 
up  reactions,  the  other  groove  was  tried 
again  until  the  French  societies  again 
preached  treason.    One  consistent  policy  in 

60 


THE    THREATENED    PROVINCES 

the  German  camp  would  probably  have  suc- 
ceeded better.  But  the  real  fault  was  with 
France,  which  refused  to  forget.  If  France 
after  the  breakdown  of  the  hollow  Napo- 
leonic empire  had  reconstructed  its  realm 
with  the  same  spirit  with  which  in  America 
the  southern  states  submitted  to  the  decision 
of  the  Civil  War,  Alsace  would  be  perfectly 
German  to-day,  and  the  whole  military  ma- 
chine of  Germany  would  never  have  been 
built  up.  But  France  smarted  under  the 
memory  of  Sedan;  it  draped  in  black  the 
statue  of  Strassburg  in  Paris  and  knew  no 
prayer  but  for  the  recovery  of  the  beloved 
provinces  which  it  had  despised  until  they 
were  taken. 

Every  piece  of  Alsatian  arrogance  was  ap- 
plauded on  Parisian  boulevards,  and  the  cari- 
caturist who  drew  my  Weissenburg  as  if  its 
teachers  were  idiots  and  its  officers  drunk- 
ards was  heralded  in  France  as  a  hero  and 
his  poor  drawings  crowned  with  glorious 
prizes.  Only  on  account  of  this  artificial 
stimulation  from  Paris,  a  part  of  the  Alsa- 
tian people  felt  anxious  to  don  their 
French  costume.  Our  neighbors  in  Weissen- 
burg were  two  dignified  elderly  ladies  whose 

61 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

brother  had  left  their  home  after  the  Ger- 
man war  and  lives  in  Paris  as  a  physician. 
Every  summer  he  comes  back  to  his  native 
place.  Those  three  good  Alsatian  people 
would  never  venture  to  go  to  a  store  and 
do  their  shopping  otherwise  than  in  the 
French  language  and  with  every  stranger 
they  must  parade  their  French.  But  when 
they  are  at  home  among  one  another  they 
always  speak  their  good  Alsatian  Ger- 
man, 

Yes:  Alsace  is  German;  and  if  the  over- 
whelming number  should  capture  the  prov- 
inces on  the  left  of  the  Rhine  and  the  tri- 
color should  once  more  flutter  over  the 
Strassburg  cathedral,  Alsace  would  be  for  a 
while  the  glory  of  the  Gallic  nation,  and  a 
little  later  it  would  be  again  degraded  to  a 
second-class  France  because  its  people  are 
not  French  but  German.  How  long  would  it 
be  before  the  rich  Strassburg  of  the  German 
empire  would  again  be  the  neglected,  impov- 
erished town  of  France?  Is  it  really  neces- 
sary for  every  American  who  contributes  to 
the  papers  a  word  about  Alsace  simply  to 
repeat  that  absurd  cant  about  the  ''lost" 
provinces! 

62 


THE    THREATENED    PROVINCES 

About  Alsace  which  the  Frenchmen  are  to 
take  we  hear  at  least  not  a  little  in  America, 
as  everybody  knows  everything  about  it. 
But  about  the  province  of  West  Prussia  with 
its  capital  Danzig  which  Russia  has  selected 
as  its  prize  we  never  hear  anything  at  all. 
The  editorial  writers  seem  not  to  be  at  home 
there.  But  there  I  am  at  home.  I  was  born 
in  Danzig,  spent  my  youth  there,  and  have 
gone  back  to  my  beloved  native  town  when- 
ever I  went  to  Germany. 

It  is  quite  true:  nothing  which  Russia 
might  gain  could  be  so  valuable  as  Danzig 
with  its  harbor  in  the  Baltic  Sea  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Vistula.  A  great  seaport  which  can 
be  used  all  the  year  must  be  the  longing  of 
Russia,  which  finds  no  outlet  from  its  Baltic 
harbors  during  six  winter  months.  The  ice- 
free  harbor  in  the  east  was  after  all  the 
chief  aim  in  Russia's  fight  with  Japan;  an 
ice-free  harbor  of  the  west  is  its  hope  in 
Germany,  and  Danzig's  harbor  is  surpassed 
by  few.  We  know  Danzig's  history  since 
997.  At  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
three  hundred  ships  brought  goods  there 
from  England  every  year;  and  at  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  more  than  seven  hundred  ships 

63 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

left  Danzig's  harbor  yearly.  Its  world  com- 
merce was  often  checked  and  always  again 
came  to  power.  In  the  last  few  decades  it  has 
developed  its  resources  with  new  energy  and 
is  flourishing  to-day.  Will  all  this  German 
work  be  lost  to  Eussian  greed? 

But  what  is  Danzig's  harbor  compared 
with  Danzig's  beautiful  streets?  Americans 
who  automobile  through  Germany  are  en- 
thusiastic over  Nuremberg ;  they  do  not  know 
that  Danzig  is  still  more  wonderful.  Those 
squares  and  streets,  houses  and  churches, 
halls  and  towers  and  city  gates  tell  the  fas- 
cinating story  of  five  centuries  of  architec- 
ture in  one  of  the  richest  cities  of  the  North. 
They  call  it  the  northern  Venice.  The  houses 
are  filled  with  the  arts  and  crafts  of  beauty- 
loving  times  and  their  fagades  and  their  ga- 
ble roofs  are  the  gems  of  eastern  Germany. 
To  stroll  in  boyhood  days  through  the  streets 
of  Danzig  is  truly  a  liberal  education.  Will 
the  Cossacks  break  into  this  paradise  of 
stone? 

To  be  sure,  it  would  not  be  the  first  time 
that  the  Russians  would  come  to  the  doors 
of  Danzig.  In  1734  a  Russian  army  besieged 
Danzig  because  it  had  taken  sides  in   the 

64 


THE    THREATENED    PROVINCES 

fight  about  the  Polish  succession.  It  had  to 
surrender,  had  to  pay  a  million  thalers  to  the 
Russians,  and  the  free  town  had  to  send  a 
delegation  with  pledges  to  Petersburg. 
After  the  dismemberment  of  the  Polish 
kingdom  in  1793  the  old,  free  German  town 
of  Danzig  joined  the  kingdom  of  Prussia- 
Soon  the  great  oppressor  of  Europe  de- 
stroyed the  peace  of  the  flourishing  city.  Na- 
poleon's  armies  forced  their  way  to  the  far 
east  of  Prussia  and  crushed  Danzig  by  a 
most  cruel  siege.  I  remember  well  how  my 
grandmother  told  me  of  the  terrible  suffering 
in  her  childhood  when  the  population  was 
hidden  in  the  cellars  of  the  town.  Danzig 
surrendered  to  the  French  in  1807,  but  the 
suffering  was  not  at  an  end.  Napoleon 
squeezed  millions  over  millions  from  the  im- 
poverished citizens  and  filled  the  town  with 
insolent  French  soldiers.  Those  years  of 
brutal  French  oppression  were  the  darkest 
time  of  Danzig's  thousand  years  of  history. 
At  last  Prussia's  struggle  for  freedom 
broke  out.  In  1813  the  Prussian  army  sur- 
rounded the  remnant  of  Napoleon's  troops 
which  were  concentrated  in  Danzig,  and  at 
this  time  the  Russians  were  Prussia's  allies. 

65' 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

In  January,  1814,  came  the  happy  day  when 
the  Germans  and  Russians  broke  the  Napol- 
eonic force  and  expelled  the  French  soldiers 
from  Danzig.  With  that  day  a  new  strong 
development  of  Danzig  began.  In  January, 
1914,  the  whole  city  celebrated  the  anniver- 
sary of  that  glorious  day.  My  oldest  brother, 
who  is  the  representative  of  Danzig  in  the 
Prussian  parliament,  delivered  the  official 
oration  and  could  speak  of  a  full  century  of 
splendid,  peaceful  progress.  The  grateful 
people  of  Danzig  did  not  forget  on  this  occa- 
sion at  the  beginning  of  1914  the  help  which 
the  Russians  had  given  in  delivering  them 
from  the  French  yoke.  Is  it  really  possible 
that  1914  will  not  come  to  an  end  without 
seeing  the  Russians  once  more  before  Dan- 
zig, this  time  not  to  expel  the  French  but  to 
help  the  French  and  to  swing  the  knout  over 
the  beautiful  culture  of  the  industrious  Dan- 
zig people? 

If  a  cruel  fate  were  to  deliver  the  province 
of  West  Prussia  with  its  ( ipital  Danzig  to 
the  Slavs,  it  would  be  as  if  New  England 
were  handed  over  to  Mexico  as  a  Mexican 
colony  with  General  Villa  as  dictator  in  Bos- 
ton.    Americans   do   not  know  the   eastern 

66 


THE    THREATENED    PROVINCES 

part  of  Prussia  with  its  lovely  forests  and 
hills  along  the  Baltic  coast.  Their  pilgrim- 
age goes  through  the  Rhine  valley,  goes  to 
Hamburg  and  Berlin  and  Dresden  and 
Munich,  but  they  seldom  find  the  way  to  the 
charms  of  the  east.  They  may  think  that 
Germany,  after  all,  is  hardly  changed  if  such 
slices  on  the  east  and  on  the  west  are  cut 
off  by  its  neighbors,  as  the  diagrams  of  this 
morning's  papers  suggest.  But  I  know  one 
who  would  feel  that  Germany  had  perished 
if  Weissenburg  became  French  and  Danzig- 
became  Russian. 


THE  ENGLISH 

To-day  I  had  luncheon  in  town  with  Rev- 
erend   from  Oxford.    He  had  come 

over  from  England  because  he  is  interested 
in  the  psychology  of  religion  which  has  had 
such  a  remarkable  development  in  America, 
and  he  wanted  to  see  what  we  are  doing 
here.  He  had  written  to  me  before  he  sailed, 
and  I  gladly  went  in  from  the  country  to 
have  some  hours  of  serious  talk  about  psy- 
chology. It  is  no  wonder  that  it  was  not  only 
psychology  of  religion  but  also  psychology  of 
the  nations  and  psychology  of  war  and  peace 
which  we  discussed. 

He  must  have  had  exciting  experiences. 
England  declared  war  on  Germany  while  he 
was  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean.  The  passen- 
gers had  hardly  any  fears  for  their  safety, 
as  the  captain  remained  in  wireless  contact 
with  an  English  cruiser.  They  had  arrived 
in  Boston  harbor  only  yesterday  and  my 

68 


THE    ENGLISH 

friend  thought  he  ought  to  return  at  once  to 
be  near  his  family.  Yet  through  long  stages 
of  our  talk  he  and  I  were  not  aware  that  the 
world  was  ablaze  and  we  discussed  heartily 
the  recent  tendencies  in  the  philosophy  of  the 
soul  and  the  theories  of  the  subconscious. 
All  that  time  we  forgot  that  our  native  lands 
are  hostile  to  each  other.  The  coast  of  the 
philosophers'  country  cannot  be  threatened 
by  battleships. 

Yet  in  a  peaceful  sense  I  never  forgot  that 
he  was  an  Englishman,  because  he  repre- 
sented that  finest  type  of  Englishman  for 
which  I  have  always  had  an  especial  sympa- 
thy and  admiration.  The  English  philistine 
is  to  me  a  good  deal  more  tiresome  than  the 
American  or  the  German  philistine,  but  the 
highly  cultured  Englishman  is  to  me  not  sel- 
dom more  fascinating  than  a  cultured  Ameri- 
can and  even  than  a  cultured  German.  With 
the  American  you  too  often  feel  a  certain  lack 
of  background:  his  knowledge  appears  sec- 
ond-hand. With  the  German  you  too  often 
feel  that  the  discussion  is  caught  at  one  point 
and  is  becoming  erudite.  But  with  the  Eng- 
lishman you  sense  that  he  has  read  his  Plato 
well,  and  yet  you  can  easily  move  hither  and 

69 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

thither.  It  was  an  exquisite  pleasure  to  meet 
this  English  minister  with  whom  I  had  so 
many  common  acquaintances  and  so  many 
common  interests.  And  in  the  twinkling  of 
his  eyes  was  all  the  time  that  harmless,  deli- 
cious superciliousness  which  the  cultured 
Englishman  in  contact  with  another  educated 
European  never  forgets  when  he  talks  about 
America. 

But  above  all  we  talked  war.  Of  course, 
not  warlike.  He  had  been  a  member  of  that 
delegation  of  English  clergymen  who  went 
to  Berlin  a  few  years  ago  in  days  of  political 
tension  in  order  to  work  for  mutual  harmony. 
He  remembers  with  great  satisfaction  the 
personal  cordiality  of  the  Emperor  on  that 
occasion.  He  had  always  done  his  share  for 
peace  between  England  and  Germany.  He 
knew,  too,  all  my  efforts  in  the  German 
sphere  to  bring  not  only  Germany  and 
America  but  Germany  and  England  into 
more  cordial  relations.  Moreover  he  felt  the 
common  ground  of  distress  over  the  world 
calamity.  Whatever  the  end  of  this  struggle 
may  be,  it  must  mean  the  destruction  not  only 
of  life  and  property  but  of  so  many  deep 
cultural  interests.    The  steamer  with  which 

70 


THE    ENGLISH 

he  had  arrived  had  brought  me  a  letter  from 
the  President  of  the  International  Congress 
of  Philosophy  to  be  held  in  London  next  sum- 
mer urging  me  to  give  the  first  address  in  the 
psychological  meeting.  We  talked  about  it. 
Who  can  know  to-day  how  many  years  will 
pass  before  a  truly  international  congress  of 
scholars  can  be  held  anywhere,  and  who  can 
know  whether  London  will  be  interested  in 
philosophy  next  summer?  Between  the  writ- 
ing of  that  letter  and  the  reading,  the  ground 
had  crumbled  beneath  our  feet. 

But  however  much  it  was  the  same  world 
which  we  saw  with  the  same  distress,  our 
instincts,  our  emotions,  our  traditions,  our 
loyalty,  forced  us  to  see  it  from  different 
standpoints,  and  in  spite  of  all  frankness 
there  was  some  last  hope  and  belief  which 
the  simplest  tact  inhibited  on  our  lips.  Yet 
it  was  clear:  with  English  stolidity  he  felt 
that  the  gigantic  navy  of  his  country  would 
calmly  take  care  of  the  future,  and  he  may 
have  felt  my  apprehension  that  the  young 
German  navy  could  not  be  a  match  for  the 
tremendous  English  fleet. 

But  even  with  the  deepest  scrutiny  he 
could  not  have  found  at  the  bottom  of  my 

71 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

soul  the  slightest  hatred  of  England.  In  vic- 
tory or  disaster  I  shall  hardly  change  this 
emotional  attitude.  Yes:  I  regret  sincerely 
that  so  much  passion  has  embittered  the  Ger- 
man-English relation  during  the  last  few 
years.  England  and  Germany  have  hardly 
seriously  struggled  against  each  other  be- 
fore. Shoulder  to  shoulder  they  have  fought 
together  and  the  history  of  their  contact  has 
been  above  all  a  history  of  most  fruitful  ex- 
change. In  my  childhood  days,  in  Danzig  by 
the  Baltic  sea,  when  every  year  my  father 
came  home  from  his  journeys  to  England, 
everything  which  he  brought  from  London 
was  to  me  like  a  gift  from  the  wide  world  to 
which  my  imagination  stretched  out,  and  I 
remember  well  how  the  big  sheets  of  the 
London  Times  impressed  us  children  when 
they  came  to  our  house  and  appeared  to  us 
so  gigantic  compared  with  the  flimsy  little 
Danzig  sheets  of  more  than  four  decades  ago. 
"Whatever  life  brought  me,  I  stood  out  for 
Great  Britain.  And  even  to-day  when  its  ally 
may  bombard  my  beloved  Danzig  home  and 
its  help  to  France  and  Russia  may  be  the 
most  cruel  blow  to  my  fatherland  I  cannot 
share  the  indignant  sentiment  of  the  German 

72 


THE    ENGLISH 

masses.  They  feel  against  England  not  only- 
anger  and  enmity  on  account  of  its  act  of 
jealousy  but  hatred  and  moral  contempt  be- 
cause its  declaration  of  war  involved  race 
treason.  I  do  not  see  a  moral  turpitude  in 
a  war  against  peoples  with  racial  affinity. 

The  whole  idea  of  race  obligation  and  race 
treachery  is  a  construction  which  has  never 
really  been  accepted  by  the  political  powers 
of  the  world.  The  appeal  to  race  feeling  has 
always  been  a  welcome  aid  when  the  peoples 
of  common  race  fought  on  the  same  side, 
but  has  never  stood  in  the  way  when  politics 
made  them  foes  in  war.  No  difference  of 
race  has  ever  weakened  a  political  and 
strategical  alliance.  There  cannot  be  a  more 
unlike  racial  companionship  than  England, 
Russia,  France,  Servia  and  Japan,  and  yet 
the  whole  history  of  mankind  justifies  this 
welding  together  of  strange  elements.  The 
cousinship  of  Germans  and  Englishmen  is  no 
political  tie.  The  banquet  toast,  that  blood 
is  thicker  than  water,  served  as  regularly  at 
German-English  social  gatherings  of  recent 
years  as  it  did  at  English- American  festiv- 
ities. But  it  has  not  in  the  least  hindered 
England   from   declaring   war    against   the 

73 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

brothers  in  blood,  simply  because  printers* 
ink  is  still  much  thicker  than  blood.  Abstract 
ideas  and  conceptions,  interests  and  aspira- 
tions bind  historical  forces  together. 

To  rely  on  blood  relation  means  to  look 
on  the  development  of  mankind  from  a  bio- 
logical point  of  view;  the  race  is  an  ele- 
ment of  natural  science.  But  history  is  very 
different  from  the  mere  natural  development 
of  mankind.  History  is  the  working  out  of 
human  ideas  and  volitions  which  must  be 
understood  in  their  meaning  and  cannot  sim- 
ply be  taken  as  products  of  racial  qualities. 
No  historical  nation  is  one  of  pure  race. 
The  strongest  nations  have  always  been  melt- 
ing pots  of  many  races.  There  is  behind 
human  history  no  breeder  of  races  who  for- 
bids the  struggle  between  the  related  peoples. 
England  fought  America;  Prussia  fought 
Austria;  Japan  fought  China;  Slavs  fought 
Slavs  in  the  Balkans.  When  Italy  broke  the 
Triple  Alliance  and  denied  in  the  hour  of 
conflict  the  help  which  it  had  promised,  the 
accusation  of  historic  treason  may  have  been 
morally  justified,  but  England  was  not  by  its 
race  community  alone  entangled  in  any 
obligation. 

74 


THE    ENGLISH 

Yet  while  England  in  tliis  sense  did  not 
commit  a  crime,  I  do  think  that  it  conamitted 
a  great  historical  blunder.  Its  argument, 
freed  from  all  cant,  is  quite  clear.  Leading 
Englishmen  have  said  often  without  the 
slightest  hesitancy  that  England,  the  mis- 
tress of  the  world  markets,  has  found  a  for- 
midable rival  in  Germany's  economic  prog- 
ress. Backed  by  the  incomparable  advance 
of  Germany's  technical  science  and  strength- 
ened by  its  methods  of  discipline  and  thor- 
oughness, Germany's  commerce  and  industry 
stood  more  and  more  in  the  way.  True 
friends  of  international  peace  recognized  the 
means  to  meet  this  rivalry.  All  technical  ed- 
ucation in  Great  Britain  was  to  be  improved, 
labor  legislation  and  social  reform  were  to  be 
organized  after  the  German  model ;  in  short, 
an  internal  readjustment  of  England's  indus- 
trial energies  was  to  be  carried  through.  But 
there  seemed  a  shorter  path  open,  and  the 
instincts  of  the  masses  rushed  into  it.  The 
discomfort  of  Germany's  mighty  rival  be- 
came envy,  and  the  envy  turned  into  desire 
to  overcome  the  successful  ascendant  by 
sheer  power.  Edward  VII  yielded  to  these 
instinctive  desires  of  his  nation.    He  sup- 

75 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

pressed  the  old  English-Russian  antagonisms 
and  the  old  English-French  enmity  was  for- 
gotten. The  Triple  Entente  was  formed. 
Three  very  unlike  sources  of  anti-German 
feeling  united  in  one  stream  of  policy.  This 
policy  has  triumphed  in  England's  declara- 
tion of  war. 

If  the  miraculous  occurs  and  Germany  wins 
against  the  world,  England's  mistake  will  be 
evident.  But  will  England  pluck  the  fruits 
for  which  it  reaches  out  its  hand  even  if 
Germany  is  crushed?  The  German  defeat 
will  satisfy  the  longing  of  France  without 
strengthening  it  strategically,  but  it  will  im- 
mensely strengthen  the  Slavic  nations.  Rus- 
sia will  be  the  great  winner,  and  the  new 
strength  of  Russia  will  be  the  real  danger  to 
the  British  Empire,  which  will  be  weakened 
anyhow  by  the  exhausting  war.  Russia 
will  at  once  push  forward  in  Asia ;  India  will 
be  liberated,  and  if  India  secures  its  indepen- 
dence, Canada  and  Australia  will  be  lost.  If 
the  German  dam  against  the  Russian-Servian 
flood  is  broken,  twenty  years  later  the  area 
of  the  British  Empire  will  be  pitifully  small. 

But  England  has  not  only  made  a  grave 
mistake  by  breaking  the  traditional  peace 

7G 


THE    ENGLISH 

with  Germany.  It  has,  I  cannot  help  feeling, 
somewhat  lowered  its  dignity  by  a  cheap  ap- 
peal to  the  second-rate  women's  clubs  in 
which  nobody  cares  to  study  the  real  facts. 
Instead  of  saying  straightforwardly  that 
England  believes  that  its  economic  interests 
demand  the  overthrow  of  the  German  rival, 
it  poses  as  the  protector  of  the  higher  moral- 
ity. Of  course,  this  has  been  a  familiar  ges- 
ture of  English  political  leaders  whenever  an 
act  of  selfish  economic  or  political  interest 
was  to  be  excused  before  the  English  lower 
middle-class  and  the  gallery  public  of  the 
western  world.  But  it  was  so  especially  ab- 
surd when  England  claimed  that  it  had  to  go 
to  war  because  it  could  not  possibly  tolerate 
the  moral  wrong  of  Germany's  using  the 
Belgian  railways — England  which  had  broken 
pledges  upon  pledges  in  Egypt,  in  Tibet,  in 
South  Africa  and  which,  as  Germany  knew 
well,  was  prepared  to  use  Antwerp  as  har- 
bor for  its  fleet. 

In  the  world  of  political  realities  no  seri- 
ous man  can  doubt  that  England  declared 
war  because  it  believed  in  that  fatal  hour  that 
its  practical  interests  would  be  best  served  if 
it  joined  the  powerful  alliance  at  the  moment 

77 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

at  which  Italy  was  showing  unwillingness  to 
keep  its  promise.  Not  a  few  believe  that  at 
the  same  time  it  was  the  cabinet 's  high  game 
to  overcome  the  inner  wars  which  were  tear- 
ing Great  Britain:  the  fighting  forces  of 
Irishmen  and  the  clashing  forces  of  militant 
suffragists.  Lord  Morley  and  John  Burns 
stood  out  in  the  cabinet  for  England's  ideal 
traditions ;  they  refused  to  serve  Russia.  But 
the  will  to  destroy  the  rival's  trade  in  the 
lucky  hour  when  it  was  attacked  by  force 
from  all  sides  and  deserted  by  its  ally,  was 
too  tempting.  On  the  athletic  field,  English- 
men would  probably  have  refused  to  fight 
four  against  two  and  still  to  signal  for  help 
to  the  Japanese  outsider  as  the  fifth.  But 
the  world  does  not  expect  on  the  battlefield 
the  morals  of  manly  sport.  I  am  sorry  I 
did  not  discuss  this  subtle  problem  of  moral 
philosophy  with  my  friend  the  Reverend 
from  Oxford. 


VI 

PHILOSOPHERS 

We  are  overflooded  with  the  superficial 
war  talk  of  the  men  on  the  street  and  the 
women  in  the  parlors  and  the  sexless  in  the 
newspapers.  It  was  high  time  for  the  great 
intellectual  lights  to  illuminate  the  darkness. 
At  last  the  best  known  English  sociologist 
and  the  most  famous  French  philosopher 
have  spoken  and  the  world  may  listen.  H.  G. 
Wells  voices  England;  through  Henri  Berg- 
son  France  is  speaking.  Yet  there  would 
still  have  remained  a  chance  that  the  en- 
lightenment would  not  be  complete,  as  it 
might  have  happened  that  Wells  would  say 
one  thing  and  Bergson  the  opposite ;  and  then 
we  neutrals  would  not  have  known  after  all 
which  of  the  two  beacons  was  the  true  one. 
But  the  miracle  has  happened.  Those  two 
philosophers,  each  equally  famous  for  the 
originality  of  his  thoughts  and  for  the  bril- 
liancy of  his  diction,  have  said  exactly  the 

79 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

same;  thus  every  doubt  is  superfluous.    We 
know  now  the  complete  truth. 

The  truth  w^hich  both  have  proclaimed  with 
their  superb  and  masterful  style  is  simply 
that  this  war  against  Germany  is  a  war  of 
civilization  against  barbarism.  ''Never  was 
a  war,"  shouts  Wells,  ''so  righteous  as  is 
the  war  against  Germany  now.  Never  any 
state  in  the  world  so  clamored  for  punish- 
ment." "Germany  and  Austria  are  doomed 
to  defeat  in  this  war.  There  is  no  destiny  in 
the  stars  and  every  sign  is  false  if  this  is 
not  so. "  "  The  monstrous  vanity  which  was 
begotten  by  the  easy  victory  of  1870  has 
challenged  the  world."  "That  trampling, 
drilling  foolery  in  the  heart  of  Europe  that 
has  arrested  civilization  and  darkened  the 
hopes  of  mankind  for  forty  years,  German 
imperialism  and  German  militarism,  has 
struck  its  inevitable  blow."  And  so  it  goes 
on.  Bergson's  diction  is  always  shorter.  In 
an  address  before  the  French  Academy  he  is 
reported  to  have  burst  into  the  beautiful 
words:  "Glory  to  Belgium!  Hail,  little  peo- 
ple with  mighty  swords!  All  the  world 
knows  that  the  struggle  against  Germany  is 
civilization  against  barbarism.    Our  academy 

80 


PHILOSOPHERS 

has  special  authority  to  say  so.  Devoted 
mainly  to  the  study  of  psychological,  moral 
and  social  questions,  the  academy  is  simply 
doing  its  scientific  duty  in  recognizing  Ger- 
man brutality  and  cynicism  as  a  retrogession 
to  a  savage  state." 

In  different  words  both  mean  the  same. 
German  imperialism  has  arrested  the  world 
civilization,  says  the  one;  Germany  is  bar- 
barism, says  the  other.  The  war  which 
shakes  Europe  is  a  fight  against  the  degen- 
erate German  land  of  retrogession.  ''Never 
was  a  war  so  righteous, ' '  says  Wells ;  and  we 
may  add,  certainly,  never  was  a  power  more 
fit  to  fight  this  noble  struggle  of  civilization 
against  barbarism  than  the  people  of  Rus- 
sia, who  are  the  only  real  makers  of  the  war. 
Bergson,  the  pride  of  Paris,  recognized  it 
with  fine  instinct.  Before  he  closed  his  words 
against  German  brutality,  he  said:  "Our 
colleague,  the  Grand  Duke  Michaelovitch  is 
now  with  the  Russian  army.  Let  us  send 
him.  the  salutation  of  the  academy  and  of 
France."  The  Russian  Grand  Duke  at  the 
head  of  his  Cossacks  as  the  English  and 
French  symbol  of  the  fight  of  civilization 
against  the  barbarism  of  Germany :  that  is 
81 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

original,  that  is  a  truly  philosophical  revalu- 
ation of  all  values. 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  answer  the 
French  academician  when  his  ''creative  evo- 
lution'' transforms  the  thinker  into  a  dema- 
gogic worshiper  of  Russian  culture  against 
German  barbarism.  He  has  devoted  many 
years  to  the  study  of  memory,  but  his  own 
memory  is  defective.  He  has  forgotten  that 
all  his  best  thoughts  come  from  Germany 
and  that  the  best  of  his  success  in  France  re- 
sulted from  the  fact  that  he  brought  German 
thoughts  into  the  dryness  of  French  philoso- 
phy. Bergson  is  nothing  but  Schopenhauer 
served  with  a  piquant  French  sauce.  Berg- 
son has  not  learned  anything  essential  from 
France,  and  he  surely  did  not  find  anything 
worth  learning  in  Russia,  but  he  did  learn 
industriously  from  Germany.  His  gracious 
speech  before  the  academy  was  evidently  his 
way  of  expressing  his  thanks  to  the  German 
benefactor;  it  was  an  intimate  act,  perfect 
in  itself;  it  needs  no  reply. 

But  it  is  different  with  Wells.  His  procla- 
mation has  been  cabled  over  the  world  and 
has  reached  millions.  Above  all,  he  has 
turned  to  his  specialty  of  prophesying.    He 

82 


PHILOSOPHERS 

has  not  only  condemned  Germany,  but  lias 
sketched  the  dire  fate  of  Europe  if  Germany 
and  not  Russia  should  win.  Every  word  of 
it  is  misleading.  I  wish  a  sober  statement 
in  reply  could  reach  the  American  masses  as 
Wells  has  done.  I  am  glad  that  Hearst  of- 
fers me  the  three  million  copies  of  his  Sun- 
day papers  from  New  York  to  Los  Angeles 
for  a  bold  type  reply.    This  is  my  answer: 

MR.    WELLS   AND    THE    FUTURE 
OF   GERMANY 

This  was  to  be  expected:  England  would  send 
not  only  her  battleships  against  Germany,  but 
above  all  her  superdreadnoughts,  Kipling  and 
Wells.  Kipling  may  still  be  exhausted  from  the 
fight  about  Ulster,  but  Wells  has  opened  the  can- 
nonading with  word  shells. 

But  there  are  shells  which  do  not  reach  the 
enemy  because  they  explode  in  the  air.  Wells* 
bomb,  German  imperialism  "has  arrested  civiliza- 
tion and  darkened  the  hopes  of  mankind  for  the 
last  forty  years" — must  be  exploded  by  its  inner 
grotesqueness.  If  Shaw  or  Chesterton  had  pro- 
claimed it,  everybody  must  have  enjoyed  it.  Theirs 
is  the  amusing  art  of  taking  a  self-evident  truth 
and  turning  it  around.  Or  was  it  not  until  yes- 
terday an  axiom  that  Germany  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  empire  has  been  astonishing  the  world 

83 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

by  its  triumphs  in  science  and  art,  in  technique 
and  industry,  in  progressive  legislation  and  social 
reform  ?  Was  it  not  self-evident  that  Russia  could 
not  compare  with  it,  that  France  fell  behind  it  and 
that  England  made  tremendous  efforts  to  keep  pace 
with  it? 

And  let  us  not  be  deceived:  these  victories  of 
civilization  were  won  not  by  the  "kindly,  amiable 
mass  of  the  German  people"  in  spite  of  the  im- 
perial government  with  its  "trampling,  drilling 
foolery,"  but  at  every  pulse  beat  of  historic  life 
this  people  which  "Wells  condescendingly  approves 
was  one  and  the  same  as  that  imperial  state  which 
he  despises.  That  drilling  foolery  was  the  foolery 
of  discipline,  of  subordination,  of  self-control.  Not 
the  amiability  but  the  thoroughness  made  the  Ger- 
man people  efficient  in  its  cultural  work,  not  its 
kindliness  but  its  moral  obedience,  not  its  geniality 
but  its  intellectual  discipline.  The  Emperor 
was  only  the  symbol  of  this  united  will  of  the  na- 
tion. 

But  Wells  philosophizes  not  only  about  trampled 
Germany's  pitiful  past.  As  he  has  written  about 
the  future  of  America,  his  proclamation  deals  with 
the  future  of  Germany,  too.  Only  the  defeat  of 
Germany  can  open  the  way  to  disarmament  and 
peace.  Were  Germany  victorious,  the  world  would 
become  a  barrack  and  culture  would  be  buried. 
We  all  have  often  admired  Mr.  Wells'  fantastic 
imagination,  but  even  the  boldest  novelist  cannot 
turn  the  world  upside  down. 

84 


PHILOSOPHERS 

What  was  the  only  reason  that  Europe  turned 
into  an  armed  camp  during  the  last  few  decades? 
Was  it  Germany's  desire  to  expand,  to  take  any- 
thing away  from  its  neighbors?  Had  any  sane 
German  the  desire  to  add  still  more  Poles  to  its 
Polish  provinces  or  still  more  Frenchmen  to  its 
Lorraine?  Every  square  foot  of  land  taken  from 
its  Russian  or  French  neighbors  would  have  be- 
come a  new  burden  to  the  German  Empire.  Ger- 
inany  wanted  from  its  neighbors  nothing  but  to  be 
left  alone.  This  they  did  not  allow.  Both  France 
and  Russia  longed  for  German  provinces.  Their 
craving  alone  forced  Germany  to  drill  its  soldiers 
to  prevent  its  dismemberment.  If  France  and 
Russia  had  pledged  not  to  attack  the  land  between 
them,  Germany's  army  would  have  been  superflu- 
ous. 

If  Germany  were  victorious  in  this  European 
turmoil  the  only  essential  effect  for  which  it  could 
hope  would  be  liberation  from  the  danger  with 
which  its  neighbors  have  threatened  it  so  many 
years.  If  France's  and  Russia's  fortresses  on  the 
frontier  were  leveled,  Germany  might  send  every 
soldier  back  to  the  fields  and  factories,  and 
international  disarmament  might  possibly  be 
nearer. 

If  Germany  is  defeated,  the  militarism  of 
yesterday  will  appear  mild  in  contrast  to  the  over- 
militarism  of  to-morrow.  Russia  and  France  could 
not  leave  the  battlefield  without  disrupting  the 
fatherland  and  forcing  indignity  on  the  German 

85 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

nation.  Of  course,  some  enemies  cling  to  the  hope 
that  when  the  German  lands  have  been  devastated 
and  when  the  people  are  starving,  the  mob  may 
march  on  and  the  banner  of  Socialism  be  unfurled. 
Yet,  it  is  endlessly  more  probable  that  the  nation 
in  its  tragic  hour  would  sacrifice  everything  but 
its  honor  and  would  be  welded  together  by  the  one 
idea  of  loyalty  to  the  throne  and  of  preparedness 
for  the  day  of  reckoning.  It  was  cruelly  thrown 
to  the  ground  once  before  by  the  brutal  Napoleonic 
force  in  1806,  and  once  before  in  1813  it  broke  the 
yoke  with  heroic  energy. 

But  even  if  in  this  unequal  struggle  of  six  na- 
tions against  two,  the  Napoleonic  sword  were  to 
strike  the  death  blow  of  the  nation,  Mr.  Wells' 
prophecy  would  prove  false.  The  spirit  of 
Luther  and  Goethe  and  Kant  and  Beethoven  might 
be  lost,  but  the  spirit  of  militarism  would  not  be 
taken  away  from  the  world.  That  was  not  Ger- 
many's own.  Annihilate  Germany,  the  buffer 
state,  and  the  world  fight  between  England  and 
Russia  is  imminent.  The  defeat  of  Germany 
would  be  the  beginning  of  ages  of  war.  The  vic- 
tory of  Germany  alone  could  relieve  this  terrible 
tension. 

Of  course,  whether  Germany  is  approaching  vic- 
tory or  defeat  we  here  in  America  cannot  know. 
The  wires  from  Germany  are  cut;  we  are  like  the 
people  in  Paris  in  1870,  who  saw  one  glorious 
French  victory  after  another  posted  in  the  Paris 
street.    But  it  is  not  enough  for  the  London  cables 

86 


PHILOSOPHERS 

to  tell  us  of  English  and  French  and  Russian  and 
Belgian  victories.  If  American  public  opinion  is 
to  be  won  over,  the  German  motives  must  be  falsi- 
fied. The  Teutons  alone  must  break  the  rules  and 
perform  every  mean  act. 

From  Mr.  Wells  the  fanatic  we  ought  to  appeal 
to  Mr.  Wells  the  delightful  novelist,  whose  feeling 
for  poetic  balance  could  not  approve  such  a  silly 
story  in  which  chivalrous  heroes  stand  against 
villains  and  brutes.  Some  time,  sooner  or  later, 
the  cables  will  be  laid  again  and  we  shall  read  the 
true*  story  which  the  God  of  history  has  written. 
Whether  that  speaks  of  German  victory  or  defeat, 
nobody  knows ;  only  this  is  sure :  it  will  tell  deeds 
of  loyalty,  of  righteousness  and  of  honor. 

This  is  my  reply  for  the  public.  But  as  I 
wrote  it,  I  felt  deeply  that  I  should  have  pre- 
ferred quite  a  different  kind  of  an  answer. 
I  should  have  liked  to  have  both  Wells  and 
Bergson,  without  a  listening  audience,  quiet- 
ly with  me  under  the  elms  of  Harvard.  Then 
I  should  have  spoken  to  them  in  reply  like 
this.  Do  you  remember,  Mr.  Wells,  how  we 
had  a  good  talk  here  a  few  years  ago?  I 
was  impressed  by  your  fine  wide  perspec- 
tives and  by  your  lucid  analysis  of  European 
affairs.  And  you.  Monsieur  Bergson,  do  you 
remember  how  we   presided  together   over 

87 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

the  Psychological  Congress  in  Paris,  and  you 
most  kindly  helped  me  when  my  French 
failed  me?  And  how  we  discussed  only  last 
year  in  Cambridge  the  problems  of  mind  and 
matter?  As  you,  Mr.  Wells,  greeted  me  with 
the  words  that  you  had  just  read  my  book 
on  ''The  Americans,"  and  as  you,  Monsieur 
Bergson,  told  me  that  you  had  read  every 
line  which  I  have  written  with  the  exception 
of  my  book  on  ''The  Americans,"  evidently 
you  two  taken  together  are  well  acquainted 
with  me,  and  you  know  how  much  we  agree  in 
essentials.  Now,  my  friends  and  colleagues, 
in  our  little  intimate  circle  think  yourselves 
once  more  into  such  meetings  on  neutral 
ground  and  feel  yourselves  again  not  poli- 
ticians of  the  hour,  not  speakers  for  the  gal- 
lery, but  true  thinkers  as  I  knew  you  yester- 
day. Will  you  now  still  say  that  Russia's 
war  against  Germany  which  your  country- 
men have  unfortunately  joined,  is  a  war  of 
civilization  against  barbarism?  Is  there 
even  a  shadow  of  doubt  in  your  hearts  that 
Germany's  culture  and  Germany's  national 
life  expression  are  in  every  respect  equal  to 
that  of  France  and  England  and  that  com- 
pared with  this  spirit  of  western  and  central 

88 


PHILOSOPHERS 

Europe  the  Russian  world  is  one  of  dark- 
ness? Of  course,  you  and  I  and  men  of  our 
type  everywhere  have  no  personal  taste  for 
the  instruments  of  force,  for  armies  and 
navies  and  all  that  stern  militarism,  but  at 
least  we  know  that  no  single  people  is  re- 
sponsible for  these  sharp-edged  tools  of 
power  which  the  jealousy  of  the  nations 
never  allows  to  become  dulled.  We  may  re- 
gret that  no  better  means  have  been  discov- 
ered. Yet  why  must  it  make  us  unjust  and 
unfair  toward  one  people  which  is  exactly 
like  the  others?  And  must  it  destroy  all  our 
historic  understanding  as  if  the  excitement 
of  the  hour  could  lower  the  philosopher  to 
the  level  of  the  unthinking  crowd? 

Certainly,  my  friends,  we  ought  not  to  imi- 
tate our  great  colleague  Hegel  who  coolly 
wrote  his  lo,gic  in  Jena  while  he  heard  the 
thunder  of  the  Napoleonic  cannons  in  the 
battle  of  Jena  which  destroyed  Germany. 
Surely,  we  ought  to  be  devoted  to  the  solemn 
idea  of  nationality.  But  does  this  demand 
the  denunciation  of  the  most  loyal  seekers 
for  culture  as  barbarians?  Search  the  ap- 
peals to  public  opinion  which  I  have  pub- 
lished in  these  painful  weeks  in  defense  of 

89 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

my  native  country.  I  have  hurled  many  a 
reproach  against  France  and  England.  I 
thought  it  inexcusable  for  them  to  use  the 
advantage  of  the  hour  to  join  Russia  in  this 
fight.  I  regretted  the  revenge  feeling  of 
France  and  the  ungenerous  attitude  of  Eng- 
land toward  its  new  rival  in  the  world's 
markets.  But  I  certainly  did  not  call  them 
barbarians  because  France  strained  its  en- 
ergies to  build  up  a  powerful  army  for  the 
regaining  of  Alsace  and  England  insisted 
on  the  mightiest  fighting  navy  of  the  world. 
I  acknowledged  that  even  the  most  peaceful 
governments  must  count  with  the  sensitive- 
ness and  passion  of  the  nations.  I  never 
denied  that  Germany  did  the  same  as  the 
others.  I  claimed  for  it  only  that  its  so- 
called  militarism  was  less  dangerous  to  the 
world,  because  it  was  the  only  country  which 
had  nothing  to  gain  of  its  neighbors  from  a 
victory,  and  the  world  might  therefore  have 
known  that  it  would  never  fight  until  its  very 
existence  was  dangerously  threatened. 

But  above  all,  my  colleagues,  every  utter- 
ance of  mine  was  full  of  appreciation,  nay  of 
admiration,  for  the  genius  of  your  great 
peoples.    I  hailed  France  and  England  while 

90 


PHILOSOPHERS 

I  disapproved  of  their  last  actions.  "Would 
not  have  been  more  worthy  of  your  splen- 
did work  if  you  both  had  remained  the  true 
philosophical  judges  of  recent  history,  ac- 
knowledging cheerfully  that  Germany's  part 
in  the  war  was  one  of  historic  necessity,  the 
self-defense  of  a  most  highly  cultured  state 
against  the  onrush  of  barbaric  masses  and 
that  France  and  England  are  only  acci- 
dentally mixed  in  for  political,  strategical 
reasons,  but  without  any  reference  to  cul- 
tural issues?  You  both  must  feel  so,  or  all 
your  life  work  would  be  insincere.  You  do 
feel  so.  Why  should  you  not  frankly  say  so? 
Truly  it  seems  to  me  not  the  smallest  mis- 
fortune and  perversion  of  this  time  of  hor- 
ror that  intellectual  leaders  like  you  two 
speak  words  which  are  nothing  but  will-o'- 
the-wisps,  when  you  both  ought  to  be  the 
steady  beacons  shining  over  a  dark  and 
stormy  sea. 


vn 

THE   KUSSIANS 

The  Eussian  army  of  eight  million  men 
has  begun  to  flood  into  Germany.  The 
Americans  feel  rather  indifferent  about 
Eussia.  It  is  true  in  the  Eussian-Japanese 
"War  ten  years  ago  public  opinion  was 
quick  to  take  Japan's  side,  but  by  no 
means  with  the  bitterness  against  Eussia 
which  has  now  broken  out  against  Germany. 
The  whole  anti-Eussian  agitation  of  that 
time  was  hardly  more  than  the  artificial  war- 
fare of  certain  newspapers  which  were  in- 
fluenced by  international  anti-Eussian  bank- 
ing houses.  The  masses  did  not  care  at  that 
time,  nor  was  the  later  breaking-up  of  the 
commercial  treaty  with  Eussia  really  a  pop- 
ular movement. 

The  Americans  do  not  think  about  Eussia. 
They  do  not  travel  there  and  the  only  Eus- 
sians  whom  they  meet  at  home  come  from 
within  the  pale  and  are  not  classed  as  Eus- 

92 


THE    RUSSIANS 

sians.  They  shiver  at  the  thought  of  Siberia 
and  philosophize  about  Tolstoi,  but  the  Rus- 
sian policy  appears  to  the  average  American 
as  an  internal  affair  which  is  no  concern  of 
the  world  at  large.  He  has  not  the  slightest 
idea  that  Russia's  policy  is  the  strongest  on 
this  globe,  the  most  persistent,  the  most 
pregnant  with  consequences  for  Europe,  Asia 
and  ultimately  America.  England  is  mighty, 
but  Russia  is  mightier.  All  other  nations  are 
in  a  hurry,  Russia  has  time ;  all  other  nations 
economize  with  men,  Russia  can  waste  and 
waste  and  will  always  grow.  All  other  nations 
have  wavered  in  their  enterprises,  Russia  re- 
mains unswervingly  loyal  to  its  aim  of  world 
control.  Russia  has  seen  reverses  which 
w;ould  have  crushed  any  weaker  nation;  de- 
feats in  Turkey,  defeats  in  East  Asia;  she 
hardly  felt  them.  The  clumsy  bear  withdrew 
his  heavy  paw  for  a  while  to  put  it  forth 
with  tremendous  power  at  another  spot. 
Russia  is  the  one  nation  on  earth  which  is 
invincible. 

The  European  nations  felt  this  instinc- 
tively and  tried  to  shield  themselves  when 
they  joined  in  the  great  Berlin  congress  of 
1878  under  the  leadership  of  Bismarck  and  of 

93 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

Disraeli,  to  force  down  the  Pan-Slavic  move- 
ment of  eastern  Europe.  The  Slavic  Balkan 
states  gained  new  independence;  Turkey  re- 
mained strong;  the  way  to  Constantinople, 
which  must  be  one  of  Russia's  goals,  seemed 
still  long:  but  Russia  had  time.  The  colossus 
turned  for  a  while  to  the  other  side ;  it  pushed 
toward  Japan,  toward  China,  toward  India; 
Persia  was  devoured.  The  little  setback  with 
Japan  was  quickly  made  good.  Meanwhile 
the  times  had  become  more  favorable  for 
new  harvests  on  the  European  side. 

Russia  has  always  been  a  master  of  diplo- 
macy. From  the  Russian  standpoint  the 
European  problem  is  very  simple.  The  great 
Napoleon  recognized  it.  Only  he  underesti- 
mated the  time  it  might  take  for  Russia  to 
force  the  Cossacks  on  all  Europe.  Russia 
makes  no  subtle  discriminations ;  there  is  no 
German  or  French  or  English  civilization; 
there  is  only  a  west  Eui'opean  power  against 
the  east  European  Russian  w^orld.  The  great 
struggle  to  which  it  is  pressing  on  must  de- 
cide whether  the  east  or  the  west  will  be  the 
ruler. 

Russia  does  not  care  in  the  least  whetlier 
Germany  or  France  or  England  predomi- 

94 


THE    RUSSIANS 

nates.  The  empire  of  the  Czar  knows  only 
the  Mongolian  heathen  in  the  East,  the  Mo- 
hammedan heathen  in  the  South,  the  western 
European  heathen  in  the  West.  But  Russia 
has  time.  To  defeat  western  Europe  it  must 
divide  it.  Its  cunning  statesmen  saw  France 
willing  to  sacrifice  everything  if  it  could 
have  revenge  for  1870,  and  saw  England  anx- 
iously seeking  for  means  to  give  a  blow  to 
the  most  disturbing  rival  in  the  world  mar- 
ket. If  Russia  allied  itself  with  its  cultural 
antipodes,  Great  Britain  and  France,  it  could 
hope  to  break  down  first  the  strong  empire 
on  its  immediate  border.  As  soon  as  Ger- 
many was  defeated  by  the  overweight  of  the 
threefold  enemy,  Russia  would  stand  much 
nearer  to  its  western  goal.  It  could  foresee 
that  after  Germany's  disaster  it  would  be 
easy  to  subjugate  France  and  Italy  and  fin- 
ally to  free  India  and  to  wrestle  with  Eng- 
land. Germany  is  fighting  to-day  the  battle 
of  western  civilization,  and  while  the  French 
bayonets  and  the  English  torpedoes  are  di- 
rected against  its  life,  it  fights  this  battle  ulti- 
mately for  France  and  England  too. 

No  thoughtful  German  underestimates  the 
great  moral  powers  latent  in  the  Russian 

95 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

people.  The  Slavic  world  is  full  of  deep 
melanclioly  beauty,  of  devoted  loyalty,  of  re- 
ligious democracy,  of  sincere  idealism.  The 
harshness  of  its  autocratic  regime  and  the 
widespread  corruption  of  its  upper  classes 
are  unimportant  compared  with  the  sterling 
virtues  of  the  Russian  people.  Yet  the  Ger- 
mans feel  strongly  that  a  fundamental  con- 
trast separates  the  German  nation  from  the 
Russian.  The  German  culture  is  active  and 
productive;  the  Russian  at  its  best  passive 
and  uncreative.  The  German  soul  is  full  of 
sunshine;  there  is  something  somber  and 
gloomy  and  oppressive  in  the  Russian  soul. 
The  German  democracy  is  one  which  aims  to 
raise  even  the  lowest  by  better  education  and 
by  the  stimulation  of  his  free  energies  to  the 
level  of  the  highest.  The  Russian  democracy 
also  aims  to  bring  high  and  low  to  the  same 
level,  but  by  lowering  the  high  and  bringing 
them  to  the  elementary  state  of  simple  hu- 
manity. The  result  is  lack  of  education,  com- 
plete submission  to  the  church,  a  pathetic 
mixture  of  ignorance  and  superstition. 

I  say  this  as  one  who  has  always  enjoyed 
the  company  of  Russians.  I  have  had  Rus- 
sian anarchists  and  Russian  princes  under  my 

96 


THE    RUSSIANS 

roof;  I  have  been  intimate  with  noted  Rus- 
sian scholars;  and  when  I  was  a  student  in 
Geneva,  I  spent  many  a  night  in  radical  Rus- 
sian circles  with  the  tea  from  the  samovar 
and  the  Russian  cigarettes  and  the  dreams  of 
a  better  Russia.  But  all  were  dreams,  full 
of  sadness.  The  Russian  life  is  one  of  cul- 
tural inefficiency,  a  life  from  which  no  true 
inner  progress  may  be  hoped. 

This  inner  deadness,  this  lack  of  productive 
energy,  is  in  no  way  contradictory  to  the  tre- 
mendous world-power  of  the  Russian  nation 
organized  in  the  Czar's  empire.  A  supersti- 
tion binds  the  people  into  a  solid  mass  just  as 
firmly  as  any  liberal  ideals  bind  free  nations 
like  Germany  or  America.  The  Russians 
have  that  force  of  blind  brutality  which  easily 
makes  the  unthinking  fanatic  superior  to  the 
sensitive.  As  of  the  Germans  it  is  true  of  the 
Russians  that  nation  and  Emperor  are  one. 
The  Romanoffs  do  not  force  the  people  into 
world  politics ;  they  are  only  the  instrument 
of  the  somber,  silent  masses  whose  orthodox 
belief  pushes  forward  to  subjugate  the  world. 
No  Teuton  to  whom  life  means  more  than  the 
comfort  of  his  senses  and  to  whom  western 
civilization  is  more  than  mere  entertainment 

97 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

of  his  intellect,  can  coolly  deliberate  whether 
the  German  or  the  Russian  civilization  is  the 
better.  He  must  feel  with  all  the  instincts  of 
his  mind  that  one  is  progress  and  the  other 
regress,  that  one  is  cultural  blessing  and  the 
other  cultural  depravity,  that  the  one  is  life 
and  the  other  internal  death  in  spite  of  exter- 
nal colossal  force  and  mystical  beauty.  As 
the  Russian  nation  has  decided  to  have  war, 
Germans,  stirred  by  these  instincts,  must 
fight  along  the  whole  battle-line  from  the 
Adriatic  to  the  Baltic  Sea  for  civilization 
against  semi-barbarism. 

If  Germany  had  been  left  alone,  it  would 
have  gone  into  this  struggle  with  the  cer- 
tainty of  success.  Even  if  corruption  had 
not  undermined  the  Czar's  land  and  even  if 
the  cruel  oppression  of  the  Finns  and  the 
Poles,  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  Liberals,  had 
not  weakened  the  nation,  the  Germans  would 
have  felt  sure  that  their  intellectual  mastery 
of  the  technical  war  problems  and  their  edu- 
cation and  thoroughness  must  bring  victory. 
Germany  pledged  that  it  would  not  attack 
France,  if  France  promised  neutrality.  But 
the  craving  for  Alsace  was  too  overwhelm- 
ing,   and   when   France   joined   Russia,   the 

98 


THE    RUSSIANS 

chances  for  England  were  too  tempting-;  and 
now  Germany,  weakened  and  exhausted  by 
enemies  at  its  back,  must  fight  against 
Russia. 

If  Germany  had  been  left  alone  in  the 
struggle,  Russia's  move  would  have  been 
checked;  the  German  victory  would  have 
strengthened  Austria's  influence  on  the 
Balkan;  the  Pan-Slavic  dreams  would  re- 
main dreams ;  western  Europe  would  keep  its 
hold  on  the  southeast  down  to  Constanti- 
nople. Now  there  must  be  a  miracle.  Ger- 
many must  win  against  the  world,  if  this 
balance  of  eastern  and  western  powers  is  to 
be  maintained.  But  what  will  occur  if  in- 
stead of  it  the  natural  expectation  of 
America  becomes  truth;  if  the  tremendous 
massing  of  six  nations  with  their  auxiliaries 
from  Asia  and  Africa  brings  disaster  to 
Germany? 

The  writers  of  the  day  are  not  shy  in  dis- 
cussing the  probable  outcome  of  the  Kaiser's 
defeat.  Without  reserve,  their  imagination 
pictures  how  he  will  be  tarred  and  feathered 
and  how  the  w^hole  nation  will  be  made  to 
bleed  until  it  is  back  to  its  shadowy  existence 
of   a   hundred  years   ago — a   people   which 

99 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

writes  poems  and  songs  and  discusses  phil- 
osophical theories — but  which  has  no  voice  in 
the  councils  of  the  real  world.  Of  course, 
Austria  will  not  fare  otherwise:  it  will  also 
be  dismembered;  the  Slavic  states  of  Aus- 
tria will  join  the  Balkan  kingdoms  in  a  great 
Slavic  union  under  the  Czar.  At  the  same 
time,  France  and  England  will  carry  their 
booty  home  and  all  Europe  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  two  mourners  will  live  happy  ever 
after. 

But  is  not  such  a  programme  for  the  fu- 
ture, after  all,  very  shortsighted?  It  may  tell 
the  story  of  the  evening  of  our  short  life,  but 
after  it,  history  brings  a  to-morrow  and  a 
day  after  to-morrow.  Our  vision  ought  to 
reach  further.  The  game  on  the  chessboard 
of  the  world  will  not  stop  because  one  piece 
is  lost;  what  are  the  next  moves  and  who 
will  finally  win?  Yet  is  it  really  difficult  to 
foresee  the  further  development? 

As  soon  as  Russia  has  the  control  of  the 
whole  Balkan,  and  Germany  and  Austria  are 
torn  in  pieces,  no  other  country  of  Europe 
can  resist  Russia's  weight.  France  and  Italy 
as  well  as  the  northern  states  must  become 
dependencies  of  the  onmoving  giant,  and 
100 


THE    RUSSIANS 

finally  Eussia  will  strike  against  England, 
the  mistress  of  the  sea.  But  this  stroke  will 
be  well  prepared.  Great  Britain  cannot  hold 
India  after  Russia  has  gained  this  new 
strength;  India  is  ripe  to  fall.  When  India 
is  cut  off,  Canada,  Australia,  South  Africa 
must  follow.  England  will  stand  alone  and 
weakened  from  the  fight  with  her  rebellious 
colonies.  Then  the  Russian  bear  will  be  far 
stronger  than  the  English  lion.  In  the  mean- 
time Japan  and  China  and  India  will  begin 
their  fight  for  the  control  of  the  Pacific.  The 
Russian-German  War  of  to-day  will  be  the 
first  decisive  step.  Japan  has  already  won 
over  England;  by  its  clever  move  of  joining 
England  against  Germany  it  has  shown  to 
the  world  that  the  eastern  waters  are  under 
Japanese  supremacy.  It  will  strive  not  only 
for  Kiao-Chou  in  China  but  for  German  col- 
onies in  the  Pacific  in  order  to  have  foot- 
holds for  the  fight  for  the  Philippines. 
Chinese-Japanese  and  Hindu  infiltration  of 
Central  and  South  America  is  the  next  step. 
In  such  a  way  Russia  will  press  on  Eng- 
land; Japan,  China  and  India  on  the  Pacific 
coast  of  Ajnerica.  But  in  the  meantime  Eng- 
land and  America  will  themselves  have  be- 
101 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

come  rivals  which  weaken  each  other.  Eng- 
land will  not  tolerate  the  growth  of  an 
American  merchant  marine;  jealousies  will 
lead  to  hostilities  and  when  these  struggles 
on  the  Atlantic  have  reduced  the  resisting 
power  of  the  peoples  about  the  western  ocean 
the  time  will  have  come  when  Russia  can  win 
over  England  and  the  united  orientals  over 
America.  The  final  outcome  will  be  the  tri- 
umph of  Asia  and  of  Asia  only.  Geograph- 
ical names  must  not  deceive  us.  We  count 
Russia  into  Europe  because  the  Ural  is  a 
boundary  line  on  the  map.  But  culturally 
Russia  is  Asia,  and  since  the  railway  binds 
Moscow  and  Pekin,  the  Ural  line  has  become 
still  more  insignificant.  The  triumph  of 
Russia  over  the  Atlantic  and  of  Japan,  China 
and  India  over  the  Pacific  means  the  com- 
plete control  of  Asia  over  the  globe,  and  the 
only  real  antipodes,  the  western  European- 
American  civilization  will  then  be  subju- 
gated. 

What  does  this  contrast  of  the  antipodes 
mean?  It  is  a  contrast  between  feeling  and 
thought;  it  is  a  world  conflict  between  mys- 
tical devotion  and  efficiency,  between  the  in- 
stinctive life  and  the  life  of  technical  civiliza- 
102 


THE    RUSSIANS 

tion,  between  nature  and  culture,  between 
the  heart  and  the  brain.  Asiatic  longing^ 
from  Buddha  to  Tolstoi  means  a  suppression 
of  the  human  demands,  a  somber,  dreamy  life 
without  desires;  western  striving  from  the 
Greeks  to  the  Americans  is  to  awake  ever 
new  demands  and  to  satisfy  them  by  cease- 
less effort  of  thought  and  action.  From  the 
standpoint  of  western  culture  the  Asiatic 
world  must  therefore  appear  anti-cultural,, 
superstitious,  semi-barbaric.  From  the 
Asiatic  standpoint  the  western  world  is  un- 
natural, artificial,  irreligious,  worthless. 
Every  great  religion  came  from  Asia. 

If  Russia  wins  to-day  and  Germany  is 
broken  down,  Asia  must  win  sooner  or  later, 
and  if  Asia  wins,  the  achievements  of  the 
western  world  will  be  wiped  from  the  earth, 
more  sweepingly  than  the  civilization  of  old 
Assyria.  The  anti-Asiatic  work  will  and 
must  appear  sinful  and  treacherous;  it  will 
be  obliterated  from  the  globe  and  the  dark- 
ness of  old  will  reign  again.  It  may  be  that 
two  thousand  years  hence  an  Asiatic  priest 
will  tell  the  faithful  peasants  the  true  story 
of  the  world  history  as  follows : 

In  the  beginning  Asia  was  the  human 
103 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

world,  and  the  world  was  full  of  devotion  and 
humility.  Swarms  moved  westward  into  the 
peninsula  of  Asia  called  Europe  and  moved 
eastward  into  the  great  American  islands 
where  they  lived  a  natural  life  as  Indians. 
But  in  little  Europe  a  rebellion  started.  It 
was  begun  in  Greece  by  a  man  called  Soc- 
rates and  his  followers,  Plato  and  Aristotle. 
They  propagated  the  sinful  belief  that  man 
can  rely  on  his  own  thought.  The  new  creed 
spread  like  an  infectious  disease.  They 
taught  how  to  arrange  the  whole  human  life 
by  reasoning,  and  the  false  doctrine  made 
progress  because  it  seemed  to  them  that  by 
such  reasoning  they  could  master  nature, 
which  God  has  given.  For  a  thousand  years 
there  came  a  check:  reason  was  suppressed 
once  more  by  religious  belief.  But  after  that 
the  Greek  revolt  spread  suddenly  over  all 
Europe  west  of  Russia  and  was  carried  by 
the  Europeans  over  to  America  where  the 
Indians  with  their  natural  life  were  subju- 
gated by  the  onrush  of  the  European 
thought-people. 

The  very  worst  was  the  tribe  of  the  Ger- 
mans.     They   invented  the   printing   press, 
which  more  than  anything  aided  the  thought- 
104 


THE    RUSSIANS 

rebellion.  Afterward  they  had  bold  revolu- 
tionists, Luther  and  Kant  and  many  others, 
who  boasted  their  so-called  science  and 
scholarship  and  inventions  of  a  thousand 
kinds,  all  aiming  to  undo  the  natural  life  of 
man  and  his  salvation  by  delivery  from  his 
desires.  France,  England,  America,  were 
not  better.  They  were  fanatically  worship- 
ing education  and  knowledge  and  suppress- 
ing the  truth  of  the  heart.  In  a  sad  period 
the  sinful  spirit  made  inroads  even  into 
sacred  Asia.  Especially  the  Japanese  were 
for  a  while  quite  infected  by  this  false  re- 
ligion of  intelligence  and  thought  with  its 
worthless  technique. 

But  the  evil  consequences  had  to  come. 
With  the  steady  increase  of  desires  which 
they  artificially  fostered,  they  made  life 
more  difficult  and  began  to  reduce  the  fam- 
ily, while  our  Asiatic  population  grew  with- 
out limit.  Our  gigantic  numbers  had  to  win 
over  the  few  hundred  millions  of  the  thought- 
rebels.  Moreover  their  complicated,  unnat- 
ural life  with  railways  and  cables  and  steam- 
ers and  factories  brought  them  into  endless 
conflicts  which  awoke  jealousies,  and  their 
technique  thus  served  their  mutual  destruc- 
105 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

tion.  Above  all,  their  rivalry  made  them 
interfere  with  one  another,  at  the  time  when 
Asia  finally  took  steps  to  suppress  that  un- 
holy rebellion.  Two  thousand  years  ago 
Russia  undertook  to  punish  the  chief  prov- 
ince of  the  thought-district,  its  small  neigh- 
bor Germany.  The  Germans  might  have  re- 
sisted successfully,  as  they  had  skill  and 
courage.  But  fortunately  the  English  and 
French  were  very  shortsighted  and  struck 
Russia's  enemy  in  the  back.  Japan,  of 
course,  helped  too,  and  finally  India;  and  so 
Germany  was  annihilated.  After  that  the 
holy  work  of  Asia  was  divided:  the  good 
Russian  Cossacks  destroyed  the  last  of  the 
thought-people  in  Europe,  and  the  Japanese, 
Chinese  and  Hindus  swept  over  America.  It 
took  hardly  more  than  a  thousand  years. 
When  the  victory  was  complete,  all  libraries 
were  burned,  the  schools  destroyed  and  the 
use  of  all  those  Godless  inventions  forbid- 
den. Now  all  people  on  earth  have  been  for 
a  long  time  dependent  on  Asia.  It  is  again 
as  it  was  in  the  beginning  five  thousand 
years  ago,  and  the  reckless  thought-rebellion 
is  stamped  out  for  all  time  and  almost  for- 
gotten. Men  must  not  think,  but  feel.  Let 
106 


THE    RUSSIANS 

us  be  fateful  that  at  tlie  decisive  hour  of 
this  holy  world  war  against  the  worshipers 
of  thought,  France  and  England  helped  us 
Asiatics. 


vni 

THE  GERMAN  POLICY 

Whose  policy  is  responsible  for  this  titanic 
world  calamity?  The  less  reliable  news  we 
have  as  to  the  actual  happenings,  the  more 
America  discusses  the  underlying  causes. 
But  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple seems  to  have  made  a  decision:  Ger- 
many is  the  wilful  aggressor;  five  European 
nations  were  Germany's  innocent  victims. 
But  while  this  is  accepted  as  an  axiom  it  is 
quite  evident  that  the  American  people  are 
ready  to  make  a  subtle  point.  The  culprit 
Germany  must  be  discriminated  from  the 
harmless  German  people;  the  masses  are 
peaceful,  industrious,  civilized,  honest,  pro- 
gressive. They  did  not  want  the  war;  they 
were  whipped  into  it  by  the  reckless  will  of 
the  autocratic  emperor.  Before  the  tribunal 
of  the  new  world  William  II  alone  stands 
accused  and  convicted. 

To  use  the  language  of  a  divine,  the  Rev- 
108 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

erend  C.  H.  Parkhurst  contributes  to-day  to 
the  New  York  Times  a  letter  which  the  edi- 
tors class  among  ''the  most  interesting." 
He  says:  ''When  a  mad  dog  runs  amuck, 
the  policeman  shoots  him  on  the  spot — not 
by  way  of  revenge,  but  as  a  humanitarian 
contribution  to  the  security  of  the  public. 
Now  has  a  more  rabid  creature  than  the  Em- 
peror William  ever  run  amuck  through  the 
peaceful  and  prosperous  domain  of  Europe? 
The  policeman  makes  no  argument  with  the 
dog  and  enters  into  no  compromise  with  him, 
but  deals  with  him  in  exclusive  regard  to  the 
requirements  of  society  and  simply  blots  him 
out  as  a  public  menace.  It  may  not  be  neces- 
sary to  strangle  Germany,  but  her  claws 
should  be  clipped  and  her  teeth  filed  and 
enough  of  her  fortifications  dismantled  to 
render  her  harmless  and  as  heavy  a  war  in- 
demnity imposed  as  will  not  drive  her  to  ab- 
solute penury." 

Still  more  typical  than  this  clerical  out- 
break is  the  milder  form  by  a  layman  con- 
tributor who  writes  from  Boston  to  his  edi- 
tor. He  says:  "The  average  American  is 
extremely  certain  that  there  need  not  have 
been  any  war.  He  wanted  none  and  he  is 
109 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

apt  to  be  pretty  stem  with  the  man  whom 
he  finds  responsible.  That  man  is  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany.  The  average  American 
is  convinced  that  the  whole  question  could 
Tiave  been  choked  at  birth  had  the  Kaiser 
brought  proper  pressure  upon  Austria-Hun- 
gary at  the  right  time.  This  he  refused  to 
do  even  when  the  course  was  urged  upon  him 
by  Great  Britain,  and  he  stands  to-day,  justly 
or  unjustly,  solely  responsible,  in  American 
public  opinion,  for  the  war.  Hence  the  al- 
most universal  hope  in  America  that  Ger- 
many will  be  thoroughly  chastized  for  her 
ruler's  monstrous  crime  against  the  peace  of 
the  world." 

This  is  indeed  exactly  the  mood  of  the 
man  on  the  street,  and  he  does  not  feel  the 
blood  of  shame  rushing  to  his  cheeks  because 
he  does  not  stop  to  think  for  a  moment  what 
it  means  that  the  Emperor  "stands  to-day, 
justly  or  unjustly,  solely  responsible  in 
American  public  opinion."  Justly  or  un- 
justly !  If  in  a  murder  case  in  court  the  dis- 
trict attorney  were  to  point  his  finger  at  any 
tramp,  declaring  that  this  man  must  be  pun- 
ished for  the  crime,  justly  or  unjustly,  an 
outburst  of  indignation  would  sweep  over  the 
110 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

country.  But  if  the  deed  brings  suffering  to 
hundreds  of  millions  and  drenches  the  world 
in  blood,  *'the  average  American"  is  wel- 
come to  condemn  the  Emperor  for  the  gigan- 
tic act  without  caring  whether  the  judgment 
is  just  or  unjust.  Can  there  really  still  be 
any  doubt  that  the  Kaiser  was  not  respon- 
sible for  this  European  war?  Who  threw 
the  spark  into  the  powder  magazine?  But 
after  all  that  is  not  the  decisive  question. 
It  ought  to  be :  who  heaped  up  so  much  pow- 
der on  such  a  dangerous  spot  that  a  spark 
could  explode  a  world?  But  most  impor- 
tant: where  did  the  powder  come  from! 
Must  we  not  say:  the  spark  was  thrown  by 
the  Servian  murderer  of  the  Austrian  arch- 
duke ;  the  explosive  was  heaped  up  by  King 
Edward  VII,  who  created  the  mighty  alliance 
of  Great  Britain,  Eussia  and  France;  but  the 
powder  was  made  from  the  political  jealousy 
of  Europe  against  ascending  Germany. 

The  distortions  of  the  truth  have  been  so 
absurd  in  recent  days  that  I  tried  once  more 
to  show  that  this  war  is  not  a  game  on  a 
European  chessboard  played  by  an  over- 
ambitious  monarch,  but  that  great  historic 
movements  of  the  nations  themselves  have 
111 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

led  to  it.  I  published  in  the  New  York  World 
a  paper  of  which  the  following  part  covers 
this  ground: 

The  great  events  have  drawn  the  attention  away 
from  the  small  immediate  causes,  but  in  the  sphere 
of  German  emotion  the  shot  which  killed  the  heir 
to  the  Austrian  throne  resounded  tremendously. 
The  Archduke  had  been  Emperor  William's  most 
intimate  friend,  but  it  was  not  this  personal  aspect 
of  friendship  which  made  the  treacherous  deed  so 
momentous.  When  Austria  recognized  that  this 
murder  was  the  result  of  Servian  political  agita- 
tion, that  this  agitation  aimed  toward  the  disrup- 
tion of  Austria,  when  Austria  therefore  had  to 
demand  Servia's  punishment,  and  Russia,  in  re- 
sponse, began  her  mobilization  against  both  Austria 
and  Germany,  William  II  was  forced  to  strike 
against  Russia  at  once.  He  knew  too  well  that 
if  the  declaration  of  war  were  delayed  until  Russia 
could  complete  its  mobilization,  all  the  strategical 
advantages  of  Germany  would  be  lost. 

But  this  means  that  the  true  cause,  after  all, 
was  not  the  assassination,  but  the  political  situa- 
tion by  which  the  Czar  could  force  a  war  on  Ger- 
many, and  could  dare  to  mobilize  against  it  and  not 
to  be  afraid  of  any  German  ultimatum.  This  situ- 
ation was  the  master  work  of  the  late  King  of  Eng- 
land. It  was  the  time  when  England  began  to  feel 
the  rivalry  of  the  Germans  in  the  world  markets. 
German  technical  science  had  become  superior.  He 

112 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

foresaw  that  the  economic  struggle  would  lead  to 
irritation,  and  the  irritation  to  hatred  and  the 
hatred  to  a  political  wrangle.  With  masterly  states- 
manship he  prepared  for  that  event:  the  English 
fleet  was  to  be  aided  by  the  French  and  Russian 
armies.  This  leads  us  to  the  ultimate,  causes. 
King  Edward  had  a  right  to  expect  that  the  racial 
hatred  of  the  Gallic  and  Slavic  nations  would  al- 
ways be  ready  to  crush  the  German  Empire,  when 
the  chances  for  success  seemed  fair.  His  policy 
of  encircling  Germany,  by  uniting  its  foes,  was 
thus  founded  upon  France's  desire  for  the  lost 
provinces  and  upon  Russia's  longing  for  the  trium- 
phant predominance  of  the  Slavic  race. 

Had  Emperor  William  anything  to  do  with  these 
causes?  He  was  a  child  when  Alsace-Lorraine  was 
conquered,  or  rather,  when  Germany  reconquered 
the  old  German  land  which  it  had  lost  to  France 
two  hundred  years  before.  The  French  hatred 
was  in  no  way  a  reaction  on  the  Emperor's  deeds. 
On  the  contrary,  he  left  nothing  undone  to  concili- 
ate the  Gallic  pride.  And  the  antagonism  between 
the  German  and  the  Slavic  races  was  necessary 
from  natural  growth.  Like  two  mighty  trees  side 
by  side  they  hinder  each  other  as  they  grow.  The 
Teutons  have  had  their  day;  the  Slavs  want  their 
day.  That  has  always  been  the  course  of  the 
world 's  history ;  what  boots  their  emperor  or  czar  ? 
This  world  condition  of  racial  hatred  once  given, 
this  encircling  policy  with  its  strategical  chances 
once  established,  and  this  last  chance  conflict  at 
113 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

the  Servian  frontiers  once  thrown  into  our  time — 
what  choice  was  left  to  William.  II  and  what  blame 
can  fall  on  him  that  he  did  that  for  which  no 
alternative  was  open? 

To  be  sure,  he  did  not  wait  until  Petersburg 
declared  war.  If  he  had,  he  would  have  neglected 
his  duty  as  leader  of  the  German  army.  As  soon 
as  it  was  perfectly  evident  that  the  Czar  had  de- 
cided for  war,  it  was  the  duty  of  Emperor  William 
not  to  delay  the  fight  until  the  slow  mobilization 
on  the  one-tracked  Russian  railroads  could  be 
completed.  He  knew  that  he  was  prepared.  But 
there  is  the  rub.  Was  not  this  his  great  offense, 
that  he  had  his  army  always  ready?  Did  he  not 
irritate  the  world  by  this  constant  preparation  for 
war?  Was  this  drilling  and  training  not  itself  a 
provocation  which  had  to  lead  to  war? 

On  the  contrary,  it  was  the  one  move  by  which 
peace  continued  through  forty-three  years  after 
the  foundation  of  the  German  Empire.  If  this 
tremendous  machine  had  not  been  kept  up,  the 
Russian  and  the  French  guns  would  have  opened 
fire  much  earlier.  If  this  German  readiness  did  not 
save  peace  this  time,  it  was  only  because  the  Czar 
believed  that  the  united  forces  were  at  last  over- 
powering. The  German  army  was  no  possible  prov- 
ocation, and  the  Emperor's  activity  no  possible 
first  cause  for  the  militarism  of  the  neighbors  be- 
cause even  an  elementary  pupil  of  politics  had  to 
see  that  Germany  did  not  desire  expansion  of  its 
home  land.  The  Emperor  had  difficulty  enough 
114 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

with  the  Polish  subjects  on  the  Russian  fron- 
tier and  the  Lorrainian  subjects  on  the  French 
frontier.  To  swallow  more  such  indigestible  ele- 
ments of  population  was  against  Germany's  inter- 
ests and  desires. 

The  world,  therefore,  could  be  sure  that  Ger- 
many never  would  make  use  of  its  fighting  machine 
except  to  defend  itself  against  its  ill-disposed  neigh- 
bors. Even  if  William  II  had  been  craving  the 
glory  of  the  battlefield,  the  absurd  uselessness  of 
an  aggressive  war,  the  absence  of  any  possible  re- 
ward and  the  evident  risk  of  great  losses  would 
have  forced  him  to  be  pacific  in  every  move.  On 
every  occasion  he  has  shown  by  his  deeds  that  the 
upbuilding  of  European  peace  was  the  one  con- 
trolling programme  of  his  reign.  The  White  Book, 
just  published  in  Berlin,  proves  that  this  remained 
his  one  desire,  even  at  the  hour  when  Slavs  had 
murdered  his  friend  and  Austria  felt  threatened, 
and  the  Czar  had  actually  begun  rushing  troops 
to  the  German  frontier. 

How  grotesque  if  Russian,  French  and  English 
statesmen,  who  all  have  profited  year  by  year 
from  this  peace  policy  of  the  Emperor,  now  join  in 
the  cry  that  at  last  the  sham  of  peace  has  been  torn 
from  his  face  and  his  real  war  features  have  been 
unmasked.  To-day  he  is  the  war  lord  indeed,  whose 
every  thought  is  fight  for  victory.  But  does  this 
will  to  fight  in  the  hour  of  battle  give  the  lie  to 
the  longing  for  harmony  in  the  days  of  peace  and 
to  the  hope  that  war  never  would  come?  Does 
U5 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

America  not  know  that  the  American  who  holds 
the  Nobel  prize  for  peace,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  is 
the  fiercest  in  battle?  Is  not  this  whole  American 
nation  united  in  its  most  earnest  desire  to  live  in 
peaceful  harmony  with  the  nations  of  the  globe, 
and  yet  at  every  hour  ready  to  strike  with  all  the 
energies  of  its  manhood  if  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
should  be  violated  ?  Would  such  a  decision  to  fight 
really  mean  that  the  nation  was  deceiving  the 
world  with  its  desire  to  live  peacefully? 

This  double  nature  pervades  the  whole  German 
nation  exactly  as  it  does  the  American.  It  is  there- 
fore entirely  misleading  to  construct  a  contrast  be- 
tween the  German  people,  which  seeks  peace  and 
culture  and  art  and  science,  and  the  imperial  gov- 
prnment  which  rattles  the  saber.  The  whole  Ger- 
man people  knows  that  it  owes  to  no  one  more  than 
to  the  Emperor  its  wonderful  progress  in  the  arts 
of  peace ;  and  the  hour  of  danger  has  shown  that 
there  is  no  dissension  from  the  Emperor's  will  to 
war  when  need  be.  This  does  not  mean  that  every 
citizen  has  a  taste  for  the  life  of  the  barracks.  War 
is  abhorrent  to  many,  but  there  is  no  fundamental 
disagreement  as  to  Germany 's  life  necessities.  Even 
the  Socialistic  opposition  is  only  a  luxury  for  peace- 
ful hours  of  discussion.  Emperor  and  nation  are 
one  in  the  knowledge  that  Germany  is  surrounded 
by  peoples  whose  racial  hatred  would  crush  Ger- 
many to  the  ground  if  it  could  not  fight  at  an  in- 
stant's notice. 

Whether  this  fight  had  any  promise  of  success 
116 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

when  six  nations  stood  against  two  could  not  be 
the  question,  as  the  Emperor  had  no  choice.  If  he 
had  not  struck,  the  defeat  was  certain.  He  did 
strike,  as  at  least  a  hope  existed  that  once  more 
the  miracle  might  occur  which  came  to  his  ancestor, 
Frederick  the  Great,  who  also  went  against  an  un- 
holy alliance,  also  was  outnumbered  by  armies  four 
times  larger  than  his,  and  who  won. 

The  papers  with  more  academic  back- 
ground have  their  own  variation  of  the  ter- 
rible conflict  between  Kaiser  and  nation. 
They  do  not  think  so  much  of  the  poor  farm- 
ers and  workingmen  with  whom  the  sensa- 
tional papers  are  concerned,  but  they  harp 
upon  the  sad  fate  of  those  who  work  for  art 
and  science  and  ideal  culture.  The  regi- 
ments of  the  willful  Kaiser  trampte  down 
the  wonderful  harvests  of  Germany's  higher 
life.  I  printed  the  following  letter  in  the 
New  York  Evening  Post: 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Evening  Post: 

Sir : — Your  much  reprinted  editorial  called  * '  The 
Real  Crime  Against  Germany"  is  the  most  elo- 
quent expression  of  the  American  upper-class  opin- 
ion of  the  second  week  of  war.  In  the  first  week 
the  rush  was  simply  straight  against  Germany. 
Then  came  the  reaction ;  everybody  felt  the  absurd- 
117 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

ity,  and  a  subtle  discrimination  began.  The  indig- 
nation is  now  not  against  Germany,  the  highly 
civilized  nation  with  its  idealistic  citizens,  but 
against  Germany,  the  imperial  militaristic  state. 
The  Germany  of  the  Emperor  must  be  crushed  in 
order  to  liberate  the  better  Germany  of  "Fichte, 
Kant  and  Hegel." 

As  Fichte  and  Kant  and  Hegel  can  no  longer 
express  their  views  on  the  question,  and  as  I  am 
the  only  living  man  you  draw  into  the  dispute,  I 
beg  permission  to  restate  the  issue  as  I  see  it.  You 
say:  "Is  it  any  wonder  that  true  friends  of  Ger- 
many cry  out  against  all  this  from  the  depths  of 
their  affection  for  it — that  they  protest  against  the 
sophisms  of  a  Miinsterberg  and  of  all  those  who 
would  suddenly  see  in  this  horrible  slaughter  of 
the  true  Germany  a  new  crusade  against  the 
heathen?" 

I  cannot  speak  for  * '  all  those, ' '  but  for  my  own 
part  I  can  say  with  certainty  that  I  never  spoke 
of  anything  like  a  crusade  against  the  heathen, 
because  a  crusade  suggests  an  attack,  while  the  only 
meaning  of  all  my  utterances  was  that  this  war 
of  Germany  is  a  war  of  defense.  The  Slavic  attack 
which  was  signalized  by  the  Russian  mobilization 
threatened  to  become  crushing  inasmuch  as  Russia 
was  able  to  rely  on  the  willingness  of  France  to 
take  revenge.  As  soon  as  it  was  evident  that  both 
felt  ready  to  risk  the  long-delayed  blow  against 
Germany,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Emperor  to  save 
the  country  from  certain  defeat  bv  making  the 
118 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

first  movement  quickly  and  by  declaring  war  be- 
fore the  slow-moving  Russian  troops  were  assem- 
bled. 

Now  it  is  thinkable  that  the  Emperor  was  mis- 
taken in  believing  that  Russia  really  meant  war  this 
time  and  not  only  bluff.  But  it  is  certain  that  this 
perhaps  mistaken  judgment  was  shared  by  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  nation.  In  the  last  few 
days,  as  travelers  have  returned,  and  letters  and 
papers  have  come  in,  we  know  more  than  a  week 
ago.  In  every  home  and  wherever  two  Germans 
met,  lived  the  one  conviction:  Russia  wants  war; 
France  is  ready,  too ;  if  Germany  waits  some  weeks 
more,  its  best  chance  will  be  lost ;  the  quick  declara- 
tion of  war  is  unavoidable,  if  the  nation  is  not  to 
be  thrown  to  the  ground.  The  fiction  that  the  true 
nation  wanted  peace  and  the  government  war  is  a 
bold  construction  which  is  utterly  refuted  by  the 
evident  facts.  The  cultured  people  and  the  Em- 
peror alike  wanted  and  worked  for  peace,  as  long 
as  there  seemed  any  hope.  But  all  of  them  de- 
manded war  when  they  felt  convinced  that  it  was 
the  only  possible  protection  against  a  Slavic  on- 
rush. 

This  inner  unity  of  people  and  imperial  govern- 
ment in  matters  of  militarism  was  not  confined  to 
this  hour  of  danger  after  the  murder  of  the  Aus- 
trian Archduke,  but  it  has  been  the  backbone  of 
German  politics  for  the  last  forty  years.  Those 
men  who  have  achieved  the  marvelous  progress  of 
German  civilization  have  done  it  in  the  conviction 
119 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

that  the  military  spirit  is  a  splendid  training  for 
cultural  efficiency  and  that  anyhow  Germany,  in  its 
geographical  position  between  rivals,  has  no  other 
way  open  but  to  prepare  for  fight.  The  German 
university  professors,  whom  you  praise,  have  al- 
ways been  the  most  enthusiastic  defenders  of  the 
system. 

You  hear  nowhere  in  Germany  more  belittling  of 
the  peace  and  disarmament  movements  than  among 
the  university  professors.  And  are  they  really  dis- 
loyal to  Fichte  and  Kant  and  the  rest?  Was  the 
need  of  Germany's  armor  ever  more  passionately 
proclaimed  than  in  Fichte 's  ''Orations  to  the  Ger- 
man Nation?"  If  Germany  had  been  made  a  re- 
public twenty  years  ago,  and  the  lawyers  and  cap- 
tains of  industry,  the  farmers  and  the  workingmen, 
and,  as  would  be  probable,  the  professors,  had  the 
say,  not  one  soldier  and  not  one  cannon  less  would 
stand  to-day  at  the  French  and  the  Russian  border. 
Yes:  it  is  a  fact  that  repeatedly  in  the  Emperor's 
reign  of  twenty-five  years  the  people  would  have 
pushed  toward  war,  if  the  government  had  not  kept 
a  restraining  influence.  It  may  be  said  even  of 
the  whole  of  Europe  that  the  governments  have 
been  cooler  and  more  pacific  than  the  peoples. 

The  historic  state  forms  have  hardlj^  any  influ- 
ence on  this  war  spirit.  Has  America  forgotten 
how  quickly  the  troops  began  firing  in  Vera  Cruz, 
and  how  suddenly  a  large  part  of  the  people  wanted 
to  fight  until  the  whole  of  Mexico  was  conquered? 
And  yet  the  crime  at  Tampico  was  hardly  the  assas- 
120 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

sination  at  Serajevo.  No :  the  fighting  spirit  is  the 
same  the  world  over  under  presidents  as  under  em- 
perors. 

But  what  can  letters  to  the  editor  achieve 
against  the  stubborn  American  indifference 
concerning  German  political  matters'?  Men 
who  are  familiar  with  German  literature  and 
art  and  science  express  their  sincere  belief 
that  Germany  has  no  constitution  or  that  the 
German  Emperor  can  declare  war  on  his 
own  responsibility  or  that  the  Reichstag  is 
not  elected  by  universal,  equal  manhood  suf- 
frage and  so  on.  Indeed,  it  is  perfectly  evi- 
dent that  not  a  small  part  of  the  present-day 
articles  which  attack  the  Emperor  would  fall 
asunder  if  the  statements  on  which  they  are 
.based  were  simply  corrected  by  anyone  who 
has  clear  knowledge  of  the  fundamental  po- 
litical facts. 

But  even  where  the  facts  are  not  of  the 
kind  which  the  school  teacher  ought  to  have 
supplied,  would  not  straight  thinking  be 
enough  to  eliminate  the  suspicions  ?  Day  by 
day  we  must  read  that  Austria's  ultimatum 
to  Servia  with  the  intention  to  force  a  war 
with  the  world  was  a  sinister  scheme  of  the 
121 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

German  Emperor  who  had  carefully  pre- 
pared and  timed  it  when  Russia  had  not 
completed  its  new  railway  systems  and  when 
England  was  suffering  from  inner  disorders. 
Can  this  absurdity  really  gain  credence  by 
its  endless  repetition?  Can  anyone  really 
fancy  that  the  Emperor  would  have  lingered 
in  Norwegian  waters,  far  from  home,  if  he 
had  foreseen  what  the  next  few  days  Avere 
to  bring?  Would  he  not  have  given  a  hint 
to  the  merchant  marine  which  was  swarm- 
ing over  the  oceans  of  the  globe  and  which 
with  its  billion  dollars'  value  became  the 
easy  prey  of  the  English  fleet?  Can  anyone 
really  think  that  America  figures  so  little  in 
the  Emperor's  mind  that  he  would  not  even 
keep  his  Washington  ambassador  at  his  post 
when  he  was  to  stir  up  a  world  conflict? 
The  ambassador  had  left  America  only  a 
few  weeks  before,  and  I  remember  how  he 
told  me  at  the  end  of  June  that  he  could  go 
on  his  vacation  in  Bavaria  with  the  comfort- 
able feeling  that  Mexico  was  settled  and 
that  not  the  slightest  cloud  was  on  the  hori- 
zon. The  Kaiser  was  as  unaware  of  the  rapid 
developments  in  Petersburg  as  the  whole 
German  nation.  But  when  the  great  Russian 
122 


THE    GERMAN    POLICY 

turn  was  made,  the  nation  was  as  quickly  pre- 
pared for  the  decisive  struggle  as  the  Em- 
peror. There  was  not  a  day's,  not  an  hour's, 
not  a  heartbeat's  time  in  which  this  perfect 
unity  of  people  and  monarch  was  broken. 


IX 


THE  KAISER 


At  the  declaration  of  war  there  was  not  a 
day's,  not  an  hour's,  not  a  heartbeat's  time 
in  which  the  perfect  unity  of  people  and  mon- 
arch was  broken — so  I  wrote  yesterday.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise  after  a  reign  of  twenty- 
five  years  in  which  the  German  nation  felt 
the  Emperor's  vigorous  personality — a 
true  embodiment  of  its  aspirations  and  im- 
pulses? It  was  a  fair  symptom  of  the  ex- 
treme freedom  in  Germany  that  small  dis- 
sensions between  the  monarch  and  various 
groups  of  the  people  had  sometimes  been 
aired  in  the  comic  papers,  in  the  serious 
press,  in  the  parliament,  with  noise  and 
energy.  Outsiders  may  have  been  deceived 
by  it.  In  every  deeper  impulse  the  harmony 
between  Emperor  and  nation  has  always  been 
sincere,  and  has  become  the  more  perfect  as 
his  personality  matured,  his  cultural  inter- 
ests widened,  his  tolerance,  even  for  the  So- 
124 


THE    KAISER 

cialists,  broadened,  his  character  mellowed. 

The  nation  realized  that  some  of  the  most 
characteristic  forces  of  Germany's  new,  suc- 
cessful life  had  their  spring  in  the  personal 
talent  and  intelligence,  in  the  character  and 
conviction  of  the  leader.  His  was  the  inter- 
est for  the  industrial  developments  and  the 
technical  education;  his  was  the  enthusiasm 
for  the  great  merchant  marine;  his  was  the 
support  for  sport  and  bodily  training  of  the 
youth ;  his  was  the  persistent  work  for  social 
reform,  for  labor  legislation,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  young  and  the  weak  and  the  poor; 
his  the  effort  for  international  cultural  ex- 
change with  the  leading  nations  on  earth. 

"When  the  young  monarch  ascended  the 
throne  and  the  great  Bismarckian  period 
came  to  an  end  there  was  a  hush  throughout 
the  country  and  nobody  knew  whether  the 
heir  would  live  up  to  the  great  inheritance 
and  whether  the  industrious  empire  would 
really  entrust  itself  to  the  untested,  self- 
willed,  youthful  prince.  But  when  last  year 
under  every  German  roof  the  twenty-fifth  an- 
niversary of  his  reign  was  celebrated,  a  wave 
of  gratitude  swept  over  the  land  which  came 
from  the  depths  of  the  heart.  The  whole 
125 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

people  felt  that  the  dissensions  and  frictions 
between  the  monarch  and  the  nation  had  been 
insignificant  episodes,  as  the  pulse-beat  of 
friendship  is  sometimes  intermittent  in  the 
most  cordial  relation.  But  fundamentally  the 
country  saw  in  William  II  its  good  spirit. 
In  joyful  and  in  serious  hours  all  love  and 
pride  and  hope  and  trust  turned  to  his  unique 
personality. 

No  side  of  German  life  was  neglected  or 
suppressed  by  him.  He  devoted  himself  to 
the  army  and  the  government;  and  yet  the 
four  volumes  of  his  speeches  deal  far  more 
with  science  and  literature,  with  education 
and  art  and  social  reform  than  with  mere 
military  or  political  questions.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  highest  nobility;  and  yet  he 
loved  to  draw  captains  of  industry  or  schol- 
ars or  artists  into  his  intimate  circle.  And 
whoever  came  in  contact  with  him  felt  that 
he  would  have  admired  this  universality  of 
interests  and  this  intensity  of  spirit  if  he 
had  met  it  in  academic  halls  instead  of  in  an 
imperial  palace.  Everyone  must  speak  for 
himself.  I  can  say  this:  my  scientific  in- 
terest has  turned  in  recent  years  toward  the 
application  of  experimental  psychology  to 
126 


THE    KAISER 

the  practical  needs  of  civilization.  I  have 
had  ample  opportunity  to  speak  about  these 
questions  to  many  a  scholar  and  many  a  lay- 
man in  the  new  world  and  in  the  old.  When 
I  was  last  at  the  Emperor's  palace  in  Pots- 
dam he  discussed  with  me  these  problems  at 
length.  He  was  especially  interested  in  the 
ways  in  which  psychology  could  be  useful 
for  vocational  guidance  and  for  the  selection 
of  industrial  workers,  and  secondarily  in  its 
application  to  education,  law  and  medicine. 
The  questions  which  he  asked  and  the  criti- 
cisms which  he  expressed  showed  a  more 
thorough  grasp  of  the  essentials  and  a  more 
helpful  insight  into  the  new  science  than  any 
which  I  have  heard  from  scholarly  or  un- 
scholarly  men.  Needless  to  say  that  the  same 
earnestness  of  grasp,  but  aided  by  a  wealth 
of  information,  showed  itself  when  the  same 
night 's  conversation  went  over  to  new  move- 
ments in  America  and  to  the  Panama  Canal. 
America  has  always  had  a  most  favored  place 
in  the  compass  of  his  personal  interests  and 
with  deepest  sympathy  he  always  followed 
the  inner  tendencies  of  the  American  nation. 
To  draw  a  line  between  the  desires  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  interests  of  the  people  is 
127 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

thus  entirely  fantastic.  To  say  that  the 
Kaiser  is  militaristic  and  the  people  anti-mil- 
itaristic, that  the  nation  is  longing  for  cul- 
ture and  the  monarch  is  forcing  them  away 
from  it,  is  contradicted  by  every  breath  of 
German  life.  Yet  may  there  not  be  an  ele- 
ment of  truth  in  the  feeling  that  the  German 
life  of  recent  time  is  threatened  by  a  con- 
trast and  by  an  inner  rivalry  of  interests? 
It  is  so.  The  grotesque  misunderstanding  is 
only  to  fancy  that  the  division  line  lies  be- 
tween the  Emperor  and  the  nation ;  the  divi- 
sion line  is  drawn  in  the  midst  of  every  per- 
sonality, the  highest  and  the  humblest  alike. 
There  is  a  certain  dualism  in  the  soul  of 
every  German  to-day.  It  is  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  ideal  values  and  the  earthly  power 
and  success,  the  contrast  between  cultural  un- 
folding and  practical  efficiency,  between  the 
legacies  of  Goethe  and  of  Bismarck.  Ger- 
many is  still,  as  it  was  of  old,  a  people  of 
poets  and  thinkers ;  and  yet  the  time  is  past 
when  it  could  not  be  anything  else  because 
it  was  exhausted  by  the  devastations  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War.  The  new  united  Ger- 
many had  again  reached  by  its  own  efforts 
the  wealth  and  the  strength  of  the  Germany 
128 


THE    KAISER 

of  the  Renaissance.  The  days  of  power  and 
of  luxury  came  back,  the  glories  and  the  joys 
of  success  and  might  stirred  the  nation  to 
greater  and  greater  achievements :  not  Wei- 
mar but  Berlin  became  the  true  capital. 

The  weakness  and  one-sidedness  of  the 
poet  and  thinker  period  was  overcome,  but 
the  faults  of  the  new  virtues  crept  in  with 
them.  An  empty  ostentation,  frivolity  and 
arrogance,  a  sensual  joy  of  life  and  devotion 
to  external  success  pushed  themselves  into 
the  home  life  and  into  the  state  life.  The 
modern  world  suffers  everywhere  from  these 
antagonistic  feelings,  but  no  people  more 
than  the  Germans.  Their  old  traditions  of  a 
life  devoted  to  idealistic  culture  conflict  too 
strongly  with  the  life  yearning  for  powerful 
external  civilization,  Berlin  became  more 
and  more  like  old  Rome  in  the  imperial  time, 
while  the  German  soul  made  its  pilgrimage 
longingly  to  the  Greece  of  Plato.  That  is  the 
conflict  which  really  divides  the  nation. 
There  will  be  not  a  few  who  will  feel  that  it 
is  a  blessing  for  Germany  if  a  great  war 
shakes  once  more  the  national  conscience. 
There  was  too  much  dancing,  too  much  love 
of  enjoyment;  the  time  of  fighting  and  of 
129 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

hardship  may  bring  forth  a  greater  Germany. 
There  was  too  much  luxury  and  frivolity; 
the  earnestness  of  a  strenuous  fight,  the 
suffering  and  the  prayers  will  bring  back  a 
purer  Germany.  They  would  feel  that  a  de- 
feat of  Germany  would  ruin  everything,  but 
that  Germany  blessed  by  victorious  struggles 
would  come  out  riper  and  better  prepared  to 
unite  the  ideal  demands  of  the  German  im- 
mortal soul  with  the  work  of  modern  civil- 
ization. 

One  thing,  however,  is  certain,  even  if  the 
most  cruel  fate  were  to  befall  the  German 
nation  and  the  Cossacks  should  swarm 
through  the  streets  of  Berlin  and  the  envy 
and  fury  of  Russia's  allies  should  make  the 
most  of  the  Russian  victory  and  should 
trample  on  the  bleeding  nation:  the  people 
would  never  separate  themselves  from  the 
Kaiser.  The  widespread  ignorance  of  the 
true  German  motives  and  feelings  is  nowhere 
so  evident  as  in  the  every-day  discussions  of 
this  possibility.  The  average  American  fan- 
cies that  the  poor  German  people  are  held 
in  the  grip  of  the  powerful  Emperor  and  his 
army  and  that  at  the  first  moment  when  a 
national  disaster  gave  them  a  chance  to 
130 


THE    KAISER 

throw  off  the  yoke,  they  would  enthusiasti- 
cally declare  a  republic.  Sincere  admirers 
of  the  German  people  and  their  cultural 
achievements  are  fully  convinced  that  this 
would  be  the  inevitable  outcome.  The  bulk 
of  the  American  nation  anticipates  this  as 
the  natural  and  most  desirable  result  of  Ger- 
man defeat.  For  not  a  few  this  is  even  the 
secret  spring  of  the  sympathy  with  the  ter- 
rific alliance  of  six  nations  against  two. 
However  this  unfairness  may  be  abhorrent 
to  their  sense  of  justice,  they  feel  that  after 
all  at  least  one  good  thing  can  be  hoped  for: 
the  militarism  of  monarchies,  the  humbug  of 
royalties  of  divine  right  will  be  swept  away 
from  Central  Europe,  and  the  area  of  repub- 
licanism will  be  expanded  to  the  banks  of  the 
Vistula. 

If  they  knew  Europe  better  they  would  feel 
that  those  to  whom  republicanism  is  the  be- 
ginning and  end  of  all  political  righteousness 
ought  rather  to  hope  for  the  victory  of  the 
German  arms.  If  France  is  victorious,  the 
chance  is  much  greater  that  Germany  mil 
keep  its  monarchy,  but  that  France  will 
throw  off  its  ill-fitting  republican  costume. 
I  was  in  Paris  at  the  Boulanger  time.  Paris 
131 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

is  clamoring  to  make  a  victorious  war  hero 
king".  But  the  main  point  is  that  Germany, 
if  it  does  not  lose  itself,  will  remain  loyal  to 
its  traditional  monarchical  state  form. 

Most  Americans  simply  cannot  think  them- 
selves into  the  mind  of  another  nation.  Just 
as  they  are  seldom  able  really  to  master  a 
foreign  language  and  as  even  those  who 
travel  in  Europe  usually  rely  on  their  na- 
tive tongue,  they  cannot  understand  the  lan- 
guage of  foreign  political  thought  and  fancy 
that  everybody  must  have  a  desire  to  speak 
the  American  idiom.  The  man  I  meet  in  the 
club  tells  me  spontaneously  how  warmly  he 
sympathizes  with  me  in  any  misfortune  of 
Germany  and  how  wonderful  Germany's 
progress  has  been,  but  with  the  same  sin- 
cerity he  adds  that  he  simply  cannot  under- 
stand how  such  an  enlightened  people  can 
stand  the  claptrap  of  a  monarchy,  if  it  is  to 
mean  more  than  a  mere  social  decoration,  as 
it  appears  to  him  in  the  case  of  England. 

I  know  I  cannot  convince  that  man  in  the 
club  that  every  healthy-minded  German  con- 
siders the  imperial  government  the  ideal  state 
form  for  his  fatherland  and  would  regard  a 
change  to  the  republican  state  form  as  a 
132 


THE    KAISER 

great  step  backward  whicli  would  be  welcome 
to  none  but  to  cosmopolitan  Socialists.  The 
German  who  believes  in  the  historic  meaning 
and  value  of  national  units  as  against  color- 
less cosmopolitanism  would  see  in  the  crea- 
tion of  a  German  republic  a  falling  back  to 
the  rationalizing  theory  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. He  would  feel  it  as  a  destruction  of 
Germany's  historic  continuity.  Does  that 
mean  that  he  considers  the  monarchical  state 
form  as  a  better  one  than  the  republican? 
Certainly  not.  He  would  consider  such  a 
question  as  to  the  best  state  form  as  unfit 
and  unworthy  of  anyone  who  understands  the 
spirit  of  history.  It  would  be  as  unwise  as 
the  question  whether  man  or  woman  is  the 
better  human  form  when  it  is  clear  that  na- 
ture needs  both  and  performs  in  both  neces- 
sary purposes. 

America  would  prostitute  itself  if  it  were 
to  make  its  greatest  and  strongest  man  a 
king,  just  as  Germany  would  lower  itself  if  it 
were  to  elect  its  best  man  as  president.  The 
German  is  not  unaware  of  the  splendid  moral 
energies  living  in  the  thought  of  a  true  re- 
publican democracy.  He  knows  quite  well 
that  the  glaring  defects  of  democratic  rule, 
133 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

the  often  inefficient  civil  service,  the  over- 
weight of  moneyed  interests  and  many  simi- 
lar faults  are  after  all  superficial  and  insig- 
nificant compared  with  the  tremendous  value 
which  lies  in  the  participation  and  power  of 
every  individual  citizen.  This  complete  distri- 
bution of  responsibility,  making  everything 
which  the  state  is  to  do  ultimately  dependent 
upon  the  will  of  every  voter,  is  a  civic 
achievement  which  cannot  be  bought  too 
dearly  and  which  inspires  the  nation  to  won- 
derful feats.  But  behind  this  stands  and 
must  stand  a  certain  view  of  the  state.  The 
state  must  be  taken  as  an  organization  which 
exists  in  the  interest  of  the  individuals.  This 
is  indeed  the  central  belief  of  Anglo-Saxon 
civilization.  It  harmonizes  completely  with 
the  individualistic  philosophy  in  every  other 
field.  What  else  is  the  purpose  of  science  and 
knowledge,  of  art  and  literature,  of  culture 
and  progress,  but  to  aid  and  to  strengthen 
the  individuals,  to  make  life  comfortable  and 
pleasant  and  efficient  for  as  many  persons  as 
possible?  The  happiness  of  individuals  is  the 
last  goal  for  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

But  the  philosophy  of  life  which  stands  be- 
hind the  German  nation  has  always  been  en- 
134 


THE    KAISER 

tirely  different.  In  the  German  view  the 
state  is  not  for  the  individuals,  but  the  in- 
dividuals for  the  state.  The  ideal  state  unit 
which  has  existence  only  in  the  belief  of  the 
individuals  is  felt  as  higher  and  more  impor- 
tant than  those  chance  personalities  which 
enter  into  it.  In  the  same  way  truth  and 
beauty,  law  and  morality,  progress  and  re- 
ligion are  valuable  in  themselves  and  not  only 
means  to  bring  comfort  and  happiness  to  in- 
dividual persons.  It  is  man's  task  to  serve 
these  ideals.  To  fill  one's  life  with  the  serv- 
ice of  science  and  art,  of  culture  and  state, 
and  when  need  be  to  spend  one 's  life  for  them 
is  an  eternal  value.  The  German  creed  is 
that  not  the  enjoyment  of  happiness,  but  the 
fulfillment  of  duties  is  the  real  meaning  of 
human  existence.  Life  is  worth  while  only 
if  we  serve  ideas  and  if  we  are  ready  to  sao- 
rifice  everything  for  them. 

If  this  is  the  moral  background,  the  power 
of  the  state  must  be  symbolized  in  a  person- 
ality which  is  entirely  independent  from  the 
struggle  of  the  individuals  as  such.  A  presi- 
dent is  the  product  of  parties;  his  real 
strength  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  will  of  a  ma- 
jority has  selected  him  and  has  empowered 
135 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

Mm.  The  whole  meaning  of  a  true  king  lies 
in  the  fact  that  his  strength  is  not  the  result 
of  the  struggling  wills  of  individuals.  He 
symbolizes  the  state  as  a  unit  and  not  as  a 
mere  sum  of  individual  persons. 

Of  course,  he  is  a  man  with  all  the  limita- 
tions of  an  erring  man,  just  as  our  flag  is,  of 
course,  a  piece  of  cloth.  But  the  flag  is  more 
than  a  piece  of  cloth  and  in  that  sense  the 
king  is  more  than  a  man;  and  only  in  that 
sense  the  German  welcomes  even  the  sym- 
bolic language  which  calls  the  power  of  the 
king  one  of  divine  grace,  just  as  the  marriage 
tie  is  taken  as  divine.  The  Germans  could 
not  substitute  a  republic  for  the  monarchy 
without  throwing  away  this  whole  system  of 
ideas  about  the  meaning  of  life  and  the  state 
and  the  world.  They  have  not  chosen  their 
attitude  toward  man  and  God  by  votes  in 
committees;  it  has  grown  with  them  in  two 
thousand  years  of  history,  and  has  grown  out 
of  their  traditions  as  necessarily  as  the  oppo- 
site ideas  of  state  and  individual  have  re- 
sulted from  the  cooperation  of  the  American 
colonies.  Nations  cannot  exchange  the  stories 
of  their  lives ;  Germany  cannot  cut  itself  loose 
from  two  thousand  years  so  gloriously  rich 
136 


THE    KAISER 

with  the  most  costly  treasures  of  culture. 
Germany's  future  depends  upon  its  loyalty 
to  the  idealism  of  its  great  past. 

Have  those  who  speculate  on  the  German 
republic  ever  considered  that  this  type  of 
monarchical  feelings  with  its  tremendous 
and  incomparable  idealistic  value  holds  not 
only  an  Emperor  at  the  top  of  the  empire, 
but  kings  and  grand  dukes  in  every  German 
state?  Are  Bavarians  and  Saxons  and 
Wiirtenbergians  too  coolly  to  throw  their 
old  reigning  dynasties,  in  which  their  state 
history  is  symbolized,  overboard  in  order  to 
hold  primaries  and  party  committees  to  elect 
some  lawyer  politicians  as  substitutes?  Those 
who  know  the  elements  of  history  would  se- 
riously doubt  whether  such  Broadway  advice 
would  find  sympathizers  in  Munich  or  Dres- 
den or  Stuttgart.  Germany  may  be  crippled 
by  the  brutal,  overwhelming  force  of  the  six 
nations  which  have  attacked  it  in  the  midst 
of  its  peaceful  life,  but  only  if  it  became  dis- 
loyal to  its  history  and  its  idealistic  belief 
would  it  be  really  defeated.  Those  who  know 
the  spirit  of  the  German  nation  do  not  fear 
such  a  moral  disaster.  Its  fortresses  may 
fall,  but  its  faith  in  the  Kaiser  will  stand. 
137 


THE   SILENT   VOICES 

We  know  where  the  newspapers  stand,  but 
where  does  the  crowd  stand  and  the  quiet 
masses  from  the  American  homes  ?  The  sur- 
face appearance  is  that  the  papers  and  the 
nation  are  one  in  this  war  and  that  the  larg6 
reading  public  enjoys  these  savage  editorial 
policies  which  put  all  blame  on  Germany 
while  its  news  and  views  are  so  largely 
cut  off  from  America.  Yet  may  not  the 
papers  be  deceiving  themselves?  In  the  first 
moment  when  the  one-sided,  colored  news  of 
German  meanness  and  brutality  and  of  Kus- 
sian  and  French  and  English  and  Belgian 
honor  and  glory  was  cabled,  the  well-known 
tendency  of  the  Americans  to  follow  the 
crowd  made  them  swarm  into  the  anti-Ger- 
man camp.  It  was  a  nation-mde  auto-sug- 
gestion. The  victory  of  the  six  over  the 
two  seemed  certain,  and  this  first  unthinking 
rush  to  the  successful  gave  the  cue  to  the 
138 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

editors  and  they  outdid  themselves  in  cater- 
ing to  the  apparent  mass  instinct. 

With  some  of  the  best  papers  the  reaction 
has  set  in.    During  the  last  week  the  tone  has 
markedly  changed.      Others,  no  doubt,  will 
follow.    Yet  the  total  impression  in  the  coun- 
try's press  is  still  that  of  pronounced  hos- 
tility to  Germany,  and  certainly  not  that  of 
neutrality.    The  theory  that  the  German  Em- 
peror wanted  the  war,  that  the  Germans  were 
the  aggressors,  and  that  it  would  be  a  bless- 
ing for  mankind  if  the  Germans  were  beaten 
and  severely  punished  is  still  the  great,  har- 
monious background  of  the  country's  litera- 
ture for  the  day.    But  symptoms  indicate  that 
the  reaction  in  the  decent  public  has  gone 
much  faster  and  further.      The  wholesome 
family  circle  begins  to  feel  pretty  sure  that 
an  appalling  injustice,  unworthy  of  the  great 
American   nation,   has   been   done.     It   has 
dawned  on  them  that  this  war  has  been  forced 
on  Germany,  that  it  is  fundamentally  a  war 
of  Russian  brutality  against  German  civiliza- 
tion, and  that  it  is  a  misfortune  for  the  world 
that  revengeful  France  and  envious  England 
have  joined  Russia  to  throw  down  the  Ger- 
man nation  by  force  of  a  larger  number. 
139 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

The  coming  of  this  change  in  the  public 
opinion  is  as  yet  little  felt  on  the  outside. 
The  newspapers  can  easily  select  the  letters 
which  they  print,  can  open  their  columns  to 
everyone  who  is  under  the  suggestive  in- 
fluence of  the  one-sided  cables  or  who  hon- 
estly believes  that  whatever  England  says 
must  be  right.  They  can  keep  out  of  print 
the  letters  from  those  Anglo-American  citi- 
zens who  know  better  and  take  the  German 
side.  If  the  German-born  'writers  protest 
against  unfairness,  their  letters  are,  of 
course,  gladly  admitted;  they  are  treated  as 
outsiders.  They  are  the  poor  fellows  on 
whom  a  generous  newspaper  may  have  pity 
because  their  fatherland  is  crushed  and  no- 
body can  be  surprised  that  they  beg  grace  in 
the  hour  of  humiliation.  They  are  discounted 
beforehand.  Those  who  arrived  here  with  the 
Imperator  cannot  help  feeling  friendly  to 
Germany,  but  when  those  whose  ancestors 
arrived  with  the  Mayflower  are  indignant 
with  this  press  campaign  against  Berlin,  they 
are  carefully  silenced.  Even  if  the  coun- 
try's leading  authority  on  international  law, 
dean  of  Columbia  University  for  many  years, 
writes  a  fervent  appeal  to  the  American  na- 
140 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

tion  to  be  just  to  the  Emperor  and  to  see  the 
true  aggressors,  he  finds  difficulty  in  publish- 
ing his  article. 

The  public  press  is  thus  like  a  curved  mir- 
ror which  distorts  and  alters  the  perspec- 
tive. I  feel  so  because  my  private  correspon- 
dence suggests  a  very  different  impression. 
I  do  not  speak  of  those  letters  which  I  have 
received  from  friends  or  colleagues,  from 
politicians  and  statesmen,  men  with  whom  I 
am  personally  acquainted.  During  the  last 
four  weeks  the  larger  part  of  my  mail  has 
come,  strange  to  say,  from  people  whose 
names  I  have  never  heard.  I  have  been  sim- 
ply inundated  here  in  my  quiet  country  place 
with  a  flood  of  letters  from  all  sorts  of  men 
and  women  who  would  hardly  think  of  elab- 
orating neatly  prepared  arguments  for  the 
public.  But  they  do  sit  down  and  discharge 
their  emotions  in  informal  letters,  warm  or 
cool,  polite  or  sharp,  grammatical  or  other- 
wise. Every  mail  has  brought  piles  of  them. 
My  time  has  not  allowed  me  to  read  all  of 
them  and  my  good  intention  of  dictating  a 
word  of  answer  to  every  letter  simply  had 
to  be  given  up  on  account  of  its  utter  hope- 
lessness. Yet  I  have  seen  enough  of  their 
141 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

content  to  know  that  the  masses  whose  voices 
are  silent  cannot  be  understood  by  simply 
reading  the  editorial  columns  and  even  the 
letter-box  columns  of  our  metropolitan  news- 
papers. What  the  papers  say  would  discour- 
age me  utterly.  My  correspondence,  if  I  may 
so  call  the  letters  which  I  do  not  answer,  gives 
me  the  most  encouraging  and  inspiring  con- 
viction that  the  day  of  justice  for  Germany's 
cause  before  the  tribunal  of  American  pub- 
lic opinion  is  near. 

I  do  not  quote  the  hundreds  of  letters  from 
German  writers.  Their  sympathy  with  my 
stand  is  almost  a  matter  of  course.  Yet  it  is 
truly  encouraging  to  see  with  what  loyalty 
and  sincere  enthusiasm  they  profess  their 
faith  in  the  Emperor's  course  as  one  which 
the  ill  will  of  the  neighbors  has  forced  on  him. 
This  does  not  refer  only  to  those  who  were 
born  in  the  fatherland,  but  to  their  children 
and  grandchildren,  many  of  whom  write  to 
me  in  English.  They  tremble  with  holy 
wrath  at  the  indignities  w^hich  part  of  the 
press  is  heaping  on  the  German  race,  and 
they  fear  that  this  recklessness  with  which 
the  hatred  against  the  Germans  is  stirred  up 
may  seriously  disturb  the  peace  between  va- 
142 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

rious  racial  elements  in  this  country.  The 
far  more  important  and  characteristic  ex- 
pressions are  in  those  heaps  of  letters  from 
persons  who  have  no  German  blood  in  their 
veins. 

Certainly  many  of  them  are  full  of  attacks 
and  vituperations.  I  should  deceive  myself 
if  I  overlooked  this  feature  of  my  collection. 
I  may  set  down  here  some  specimens.  ' '  Your 
article  is  pure,  unadulterated  piffle,  and  you 
know  it.  Germany,  the  bully  of  Europe,  is 
doomed,  and  you  know  it,  too."  Or:  "The 
American  people  believe  that  the  Kaiser  is 
an  arrogant  swashbuckler  and  his  military 
oflficers  are  insolent  warriors."  Or:  "Ger- 
many is  a  thug  breaking  into  the  household 
of  nations  in  the  night.  I  would  be  glad  to 
see  food  furnished  to  those  who  are  defend- 
ing their  home  lands.  The  German  army  I 
would  see  go  hungry."  Or:  "It  was  your 
blustering,  swell-headed  German  Emperor 
who  is  to  blame.  He  is  a  big  bluff,  but  was 
called  this  time  good  and  plenty.  The  Ger- 
man empire  ends  in  sixty  days,"  Or:  "Let 
us  hope  the  final  result  will  be  a  disgraced 
Kaiser  and  a  German  republic. "  Or :  "  When 
the  German  armies  have  been  beaten  to  a 
143 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

frazzle,  as  pray  Heaven  they  will,  and  the 
Emperor  has  been  sent  to  a  hospital  for 
paranoiacs,  where  he  should  have  been  con- 
signed before,  then  it  will  be  a  great  oppor- 
tunity for  the  Social  Democrats." 

This  concern  with  the  Emperor's  paranoia 
is  one  of  the  most  often  repeated  sympathetic 
motives.  One  dear  soul  writes  directly:  **I 
see  symptoms  of  morbidity,  suggestive  of 
paranoia.  I  hope  the  symptoms  are  decep- 
tive, but  I  find  them  depressing."  Another, 
a  lawyer  who  has  a  reputation  to  lose,  ten- 
derly goes  into  still  more  detail.  ''I  really 
fear  that  William  is  the  victim  of  the  two 
distinctive  delusions  which  constitute  para- 
noia, the  delusion  of  grandeur  and  the  delu- 
sion of  persecution.  Nothing  but  his  insane 
delusion  made  him  believe  that  under  his 
guidance  Germany  can  overcome  Russia, 
France,  Great  Britain  and  Belgium  com- 
bined." As  this  came  early,  at  a  time  when 
I  was  still  trying  to  answer  at  least  the  longer 
epistles,  I  wrote  to  him  in  an  ironic  mood 
that  his  diagnosis  was  the  more  probable  as 
it  evidently  runs  in  the  family,  considering 
that  Frederick  the  Great,  his  ancestor,  also 
thought  that  he  ought  to  fight  against  the 
144 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

whole  world  when  the  honor  of  his  people  de- 
manded it.  But  my  correspondent  took  that 
seriously  and  wrote  at  once :  ' '  Frederick  the 
Great  was  certainly  a  paranoiac, ' '  and  added : 
*'My  knowledge  of  psychology  is  very  slight 
and  yours  is  very  great,  but  mine  is  enough 
to  convince  me  that  many  of  the  most  influen- 
tial names  in  history  acquired  their  fame 
from  the  results  of  paranoia.  Among  these  I 
include  the  names  of  Moses,  Jesus,  Paul,  and 
Mohammed."  But  however  often  the  para- 
noia motive  returns,  it  is  outdone  by  one 
imaginative  thought  which  recurs  with  sur- 
prising regularity,  namely,  "the  hope  that 
the  Kaiser  may  some  day  hang  from  the  top 
of  the  Eiffel  Tower."  Needless  to  say  that 
wishes  of  this  kind  are  mostly  expressed  on 
postal  cards.  Others  make  it  still  easier  for 
themselves.  There  is,  for  instance,  one  gen- 
tleman in  Chicago  who  is  evidently  afraid 
that  the  eastern  newspapers  do  not  supply 
me  sufficiently  with  accusations  against  Ger- 
many. He  therefore  sends  me  regularly 
whatever  he  can  cut  out  of  western  news- 
papers, especially  when  they  quote  my  arti- 
cles, and  in  happy  reminiscence  of  his  not 
quite  successful  German  school  lessons, 
145 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

writes  blue  pencil  comments  over  the  text 
like  "Du  bist  dumm!" 

Do  these  communications  really  mean  any- 
thing? Do  not  these  insults  simply  bear  the 
stamp  of  the  unthinking  men  who  are  per- 
fectly honest  but  naively  imitate  in  their 
crude  and  vulgar  way  what  they  see  in  the 
papers'?  If  the  English  cables  had  been  cut 
and  they  had  read  daily  from  German  sources 
the  wild  news  of  glorious  deeds  of  the  Ger- 
mans and  of  the  brutality  of  the  Kussian 
Cossacks  and  the  infamy  of  the  French  sol- 
diers, these  same  men  would  have  shouted 
themselves  hoarse  for  the  German  Emperor, 
the  finest  man  in  Europe.  This  class  of  peo- 
ple simply  rushes  into  the  path  of  least  re- 
sistance. As  soon  as  the  thinking  men  get 
the  upper  hand  and  the  press  yields  to  them, 
these  post-card  writers  who  may  easily  lick 
their  intellectual  weight  in  wildcats  will  be  on 
the  side  of  fairness  before  they  know  it  them- 
selves. 

But  I  turn  now  to  the  much  larger  part  of 
my  non-German  correspondence,  to  those  who 
object  to  the  anti-German  sentiment.  They 
really  speak  the  language  of  all  classes ;  they 
come  from  all  parts  of  the  country;  and  they 
146 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

vary  greatly  in  the  character  of  their  mo- 
tives. Many  think  of  their  personal  debt  to 
German  people  or  to  German  culture ;  others 
emphasize  the  historic  obligation  of  America; 
still  more  dread  the  frightful  consequences  of 
a  German  defeat,  or  condemn  the  one-sided- 
ness  of  a  hasty  public.  But  almost  all  speak 
like  people  who  think  for  themselves,  earnest, 
independent  men  who  represent  the  best  type 
of  the  wholesome  American  public. 

' '  The  current  prejudices  and  the  ultra-pro- 
British  attitude  I  expected,  but  the  revelation 
of  ignorance  among  our  educated  men  about 
history  and  the  obvious  meaning  of  things 
amazes  me."  Or:  ''It  would  be  lamentable 
if  German  civilization  should  suffer  as  the 
victim  of  blind,  bellicose  resentment."  Or: 
**  Undoubtedly  the  Kaiser  is  the  friend  of 
peace;  undoubtedly  the  civilized,  intelligent 
world  should  stand  for  Germany  in  this  con- 
flict of  civilizations."  Or:  "Amazing  indeed 
is  the  attitude  of  some  of  our  people  who,  I 
think,  fail  to  realize  Germany's  progress  and 
Russia's  blocking.  I  know  both  lands  well 
and  should  never  hesitate  for  a  moment  on 
which  side  to  cast  my  lot."  Or:  "It  seems 
to  me  that  if  my  countrymen  consult  their 
147 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

own  interests,  they  will  not  find  them  to  lie 
either  with  the  Slav  or  Japanese  advance." 
Or :  * '  I  am  unwilling  to  stand  by  without  pro- 
testing against  the  manifest  unfairness  with 
which  the  game  is  played  and  the  cards 
stacked  against  your  country.  It  is  bad 
enough  to  have  the  news  colored  in  the  inter- 
ests of  Germany's  foes,  but  it  is  much  worse 
to  prejudice  American  opinion  by  editorial 
comment  founded  on  such  news. "  Or : ' '  I  am 
an  American  born  and  brought  up  and  like  to 
see  fair  play  at  all  times.  As  far  as  Germany 
and  Austria  are  concerned,  they  are  not  get- 
ting same,  not  from  the  European  nations  or 
from  the  American  press. "  Or : '  *  This  is  an 
unfair  struggle  any  way  you  look  at  it.  I  am 
surprised  at  a  power  like  England  going  in 
with  such  odds  against  two  nations."  Or: 
' '  The^crushing  of  Germany  as  bulwark  of  the 
Germanic  race  on  the  European  continent  is 
not  likely  to  prove  of  advantage  to  the  ad- 
vance of  mankind.  To  enlighten  our  people 
on  the  real  issues  of  this  dreadful  struggle 
is  indeed  highly  necessary."  Or:  '*I  know 
that  in  this  struggle  Germany  is  standing  for 
the  essential  civilization  of  the  world  and 
while  I  have  no  German  blood  in  my  veins 
148 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

my  sympathies  are  all  with  her. "  Or :  *  *  How 
anybody  with  a  thimbleful  of  common-sense 
can  resist  tliis  absolutely  sane  and  true  state- 
ment of  the  case  of  Germany  against  the 
allies  passes  my  comprehension.  The  nota- 
ble fact  that  so  sane  a  thinker  as  John  Morley 
resigned  from  the  British  cabinet  rather  than 
join  Russia  in  this  war  of  aggression  is  most 
significant.  In  any  event — Germany  may  be 
beaten — but  beaten  or  not  she  did  the  only 
thing  that  a  strong  people  could  possibly  do 
under  the  circumstances."  Or:  ^'A  proud 
and  manly  nation  cannot  stoop  to  fling  back 
the  mud  flung  at  it  by  the  press  of  Europe 
and  copied  thoughtlessly  in  our  own.  For 
my  part  I  earnestly  hope  that  the  Teutonic 
Hercules  whose  labors  have  been  so  great  a 
boon  to  mankind  will  yet  baffle  his  enemies. ' ' 
Or:  "It  is  urgently  necessary  that  vigorous 
methods  be  adopted  to  convince  the  American 
people  that  it  is  a  moral  struggle  and  an  at- 
tempt to  strangle  the  progress  of  the  German 
people.  When  Russia  threatened  India,  Eng- 
land's diplomacy  induced  Japan  to  fight  her 
war.  Now  that  Germany  threatens  Eng- 
land's commercial  supremacy,  it  turns  the 
legions  of  Europe  against  her."  Or:  ''As  a 
149 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

journalist,  manager  of  a  news  bureau,  I  have 
tried  to  form  as  accurate  conclusions  as  I 
could  regarding  the  present  absurd  but  mon- 
strous and  gigantic  war,  and  for  the  life  of 
me  I  fail  to  see  where  Germany's  error  lies. 
She,  as  I  make  it  out,  had  done  her  utmost 
for  peace,  and  when  Russia  began  to  mobilize 
and  kept  on,  Germany  deserves  commenda- 
tion for  her  strategic  sense  in  sailing  in  just 
as  fast  as  she  could.  I  am  amazed  that  the 
public  seems  to  blame  Germany  for  the  war. '  * 
Or:  ''France,  England  and  Japan  in  fighting 
on  the  side  of  Russia  are  bringing  nearer  by 
twenty-five  years  the  time  they  will  become 
actually  dependencies  of  Russia.  Nothing 
can  prevent  this  except  Germany's  success 
now.  Russia,  being  relentless  and  ungrateful, 
will  not  hesitate  to  break  any  promises  she 
has  made  her  allies  for  their  support. "  Or : 
"For  us  who  love  Germany  the  thing  which 
hurts  most  deeply  is  less  the  dreadfulness  of 
the  material  situation  than  the  infamous  and 
insidious  misstatement  of  the  issue:  every 
lover  of  Germany  should  now  consider  him- 
self a  soldier  sworn  to  defend  her  good 
name."  Or:  "As  one  descended  from  grad- 
uates of  Harvard  University  since  1707,  as 

150 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

one  who  has  lived  both  in  France  and  Ger- 
many and  been  intimate  with  the  elite  of  both 
countries,  I  take  the  liberty  of  expressing 
my  most  heartfelt  and  best  wishes  for  the 
success  of  Germany  in  this  present  struggle 
which  I  consider  to  be  for  the  advancement  of 
Christian,  Teutonic  civilization." 

I  might  go  on  in  this  way  without  end.  Of 
course  the  real  significance  of  these  hundreds 
of  letters  would  come  out  only  if  space  al- 
lowed them  to  be  copied  complete.  While  I 
am  writing  these  lines  the  mail  brings  me  a 
new  pile.  At  haphazard  I  take  one  sample. 
It  is  written  from  St.  Louis.  "I  have  no 
German  blood  save  what  I  inherited  through 
the  Anglo-Saxon  invaders  of  England  ages 
ago,  who  brought  with  them  the  ideals  of  jus- 
tice and  freedom  which  their  latest  descend- 
ants in  England  have  forgotten.  It  is  to  me 
incomprehensible  how  the  American  press  so 
generally  supports  Russia  and  England. 
Russia  stands  for  the  most  conscienceless 
and  atrocious  despotism,  whose  recent  prom- 
ise of  national  regeneration  to  Poland  is  an 
insult  to  human  intelligence  after  its  crush- 
ing out  the  guaranteed  liberties  of  Finland 
only  yesterday.  As  to  our  relations  with 
151 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

Great  Britain  there  is  mucli  idle  talk  of  a 
hundred  years  of  peace.  Frederick  the 
Great  of  Prussia  was  the  first  European 
monarch  to  recognize  our  independence. 
Never  have  the  American  people  suffered  in- 
jury at  the  hands  of  the  German  people,  who 
have  peacefully  entered  our  land  in  multi- 
tudes to  help  subdue  the  wilderness,  bringing 
with  them  the  ark  of  science,  art  and  loyalty. 
Never  can  America  fully  repay  this  debt  to 
Germans  and  to  Germany.  England  ushered 
in  the  hundred  years  of  peace  by  destroying 
our  capital  and  presidential  residence.  Dur- 
ing our  Civil  War  it  was  British  ships  and 
British  cannon  that  swept  off  the  seas  our 
world-wide  commerce.  Great  Britain,  with- 
out the  slightest  intention  of  making  a  Pan- 
ama Canal  herself,  has  from  the  outset 
thrown  every  possible  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
our  accomplishing  it.  If  all  this  is  the  spirit 
of  peace,  rather  give  us  war.  I  most  ear- 
nestly pray  that  Providence,  wearied  at  last 
by  such  presumption,  has  appointed  Germany 
to  teach  Great  Britain  that  nations,  like  in- 
dividuals, must  learn  moderation." 

To  be  sure,  I  should  not  do  justice  to  my 
host  of  letters  if  I  were  to  forget  those  who 
152 


THE    SILENT    VOICES 

do  not  praise  and  who  do  not  blame,  but  sim- 
ply put  questions.  Here,  too,  many  simply 
shape  in  interrogatory  form  their  disap- 
proval of  Germany's  course.  But  there  is 
not  much  variety  in  this  field,  and  I  have 
mostly  answered  such  questions,  because  I 
was  able  to  use  the  stereotyped  stand- 
ard replies.  The  chief  questions  which  came 
again  ^nd  again  were  four.  ''Why  did  Ger- 
many not  wait  until  Russia  actually  declared 
war?"  My  answer,  of  course,  is  that  if  Ger- 
many had  waited  until  Russia's  eight  million 
men  were  mobilized,  it  would  have  lost  the 
war  before  it  had  begun.  It  had  to  act  as 
soon  as  the  mobilization  and  actual  movement 
of  Russian  troops  began.  Just  as  frequently 
comes  the  question:  "If  this  is  Germany's 
war  against  Russia,  why  did  it  declare  war 
on  France  too?"  My  regular  answer  is  that 
it  declared  war  on  France  because  France  be- 
gan mobilizing  and  refused  to  promise  that 
it  would  keep  neutral  during  a  German-Rus- 
sian war.  As  France  wanted  to  use  this  op- 
portunity for  revenge,  Germany  had  to  strike 
quickly  before  Russia's  preparations  were 
completed.  The  third  question  is:  "Would 
not  this  war  have  been  avoided  if  Germany 
153 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

had  forced  Austria  to  give  up  the  punitive 
expedition  against  Servia?"  I  reply  with 
fullest  conviction  that  it  would  not  have  pre- 
vented the  war,  but  simply  postponed  it  for 
possibly  a  year  until  the  Russian  prepara- 
tions for  the  war,  with  French  money,  had 
been  completed  and  the  chances  against  Ger- 
many would  have  been  still  greater.  And 
curiously,  the  most  frequent  question  put  in 
letters  and  post  cards  on  my  table  is  this: 
''It  may  have  been  necessary  for  Germany 
to  fight  against  Eussia  and  France,  but  why 
did  Germany  make  war  on  England?"  My 
answer  could  every  time  be  short.  It  did  not 
make  war  on  England.  Its  whole  policy  was 
controlled  by  the  wish  to  have  firm  friendship 
with  England,  and  it  is  the  greatest  grief 
of  the  German  people  that  England  in  the 
moment  when  the  chances  for  Germany 
seemed  bad  took  hold  of  the  convenient 
chance  to  strike  the  commercial  rival,  de- 
stroyed the  slowly  built-up  friendship,  and 
declared  war  against  the  cousins  on  the 
continent. 


XI 


THE  AMERICANS 

We  have  entered  into  the  second  month  of 
war.  How  many  more  will  follow?  When 
will  the  day  come  on  which  I  may  write 
over  my  entry  in  this  diary  the  heading 
''After  the  War"?  But  how  this  one  month 
has  already  changed  the  aspect  of  the  world 
conflict.  Four  weeks  ago  it  seemed  like  mad- 
ness for  Germany  to  dare  to  fight  against  the 
world  instead  of  surrendering  at  once  when 
Europe  with  its  colossal  resources  was  united 
in  an  attack  on  its  borders.  To-day  the  sub- 
urbs of  Paris  are  razed  in  order  that  the 
enemy  may  not  use  the  houses  for  protec- 
tion. The  Germans  are  expected  before  the 
doors  of  the  French  capital.  What  a  change 
also  in  the  role  which  falls  to  the  Americans 
in  this  historic  catastrophe.  At  first  the 
Americans  appeared  as  entirely  detached 
spectators  of  the  European  turmoil.  Their 
only  concern  was  the  fate  of  the  hundred 
155 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

thousand  tourists  who  were  caught  between 
Dublin  and  Petersburg  when  the  war  trap 
was   sprung. 

But  how  quickly  did  every  day  bring  to 
the  new  world  fresh  evidence  that  civilized 
mankind  is  one.  The  economic  changes  were 
felt  most  directly.  The  exchanges  were 
closed;  the  food  prices  went  up;  the  impor- 
ters and  exporters  faced  a  new  situation; 
bankers  were  stunned;  a  million  men  in  the 
textile  mills  foresaw  idleness  as  the  dyestuffs 
were  not  on  hand ;  American  securities  were 
unloaded  by  panic-stricken  Europe.  America 
felt  that  no  shell  could  explode  on  the  old 
world  battlegrounds  without  some  splinters 
hitting  the  skyscrapers  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ocean.  At  the  same  time  new  hopes,  new 
plans,  new  achievements  were  stirring  the 
country.  The  American  crop  is  abundant, 
while  Europe  is  threatened  by  famine.  New 
industries  are  starting  to  fill  the  gaps  of  im- 
port. A  great  merchant  marine  is  surely  to 
come  from  this  perverted  time  in  which  hun- 
dreds of  large  ocean  carriers  lie  idle  in  the 
harbors  of  the  Atlantic.  New  markets  of 
the  world  invite  American  efficiency.  South 
America  is  ready  for  a  great  friendly  inva- 
156 


THE    AMERICANS 

sion  from  the  north.    Everything  is  in  change 
for  the  worse  or  for  the  better. 

With  the  economic  changes  have  come  new 
developments  in  the  social  and  the  political 
attitude.  America  is  the  one  great  neutral 
country.  But  the  mood  of  the  population  has 
not  remained  neutral  for  a  single  day.  A 
great  wave  of  hostility  to  Germany  has  over- 
flooded  the  land.  In  the  first  two  weeks  the 
rush  against  Berlin  was  senseless.  The 
newspapers  of  that  depressing  period  will 
remain  sad  human  documents  of  a  sober  peo- 
ple losing  its  mind.  The  first  vehement  re- 
action came  necessarily  from  the  Germans 
themselves  in  America;  it  called  not  for  a 
similar  outburst  against  Russia  or  France 
or  England,  but  simply  for  fair  play.  The 
twenty-five  millions  of  German  descent  were 
soon  joined  by  the  quiet,  impartial  elements 
of  all  races.  At  the  end  of  the  second  week 
came  a  slight  change  in  the  newspapers  all 
along  the  line,  and  now  the  sober  elements  of 
the  American  people  are  beginning  to  feel 
sorry  that  such  a  passionate  outbreak  of  the 
whole  nation  was  possible  in  a  time  in  which 
a  calm  judicial  attitude  was  needed  more 
than  ever.  Of  course,  there  are  still  con- 
157 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

servative  cliques  which  have  been  brought 
up  in  the  dogma  that  France  and  England 
cannot  do  any  wrong,  and  there  are  news- 
papers which  write  for  them.  There  are  still 
larger  groups  which  are  accustomed  to  a 
kind  of  rationalistic  philosophizing  about 
democracy  and  which  vaguely  feel  that  Ger- 
many's defeat  would  mean  a  rise  of  demo- 
cratic government  in  the  world,  whatever  the 
right  or  wrong  in  the  beginning  of  the  war 
may  have  been.  They  do  not  see  that  Ger- 
many is  internally  as  democratic  as  any  coun- 
try in  the  world,  that  its  defeat  would  mean 
only  the  rise  of  Eussia's  autocracy,  that  Ger- 
many's monarchic  state  form  has  deep  his- 
toric roots  and  has  proved  a  most  fortunate 
condition  for  Germany's  unparalleled  growth 
in  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  its  peo- 
ple. 

Whatever  extreme  groups  and  cliques  may 
think,  the  nation  as  a  whole  has  to-day 
probably  overcome  that  blind,  passionate  un- 
fairness of  the  first  weeks,  but  it  is  not  yet 
ready  to  listen  to  both  sides  really  without 
prejudi<;e.  It  has  not  found  again  its  high 
place  of  dignity;  it  has  forgotten  that 
its  mother  country  is  the  whole  of  Europe. 
158 


THE    AMERICANS 

Such  retreat  from  the  eccentric  position  of 
the  partisan  to  the  central  stronghold  of  the 
truly  neutral  is  the  more  to  be  desired,  as  this 
great  historic  month  has  also  made  it  clearer 
every  day  that  America's  political  influence 
in  the  war  is  of  highest  import.  The  na- 
tion was  not  aware  in  the  first  hours  how 
much  even  slight  decisions  of  the  government 
might  influence  the  happenings  at  the  the- 
ater of  war.  The  censorship  of  the  wireless 
or  the  government  aid  of  the  merchant 
marine  or  the  endorsement  of  war  loans  or 
the  activities  of  American  ambassadors  in 
Europe  or  the  interpretation  of  contraband 
and  hundreds  of  other  much  aired  ques- 
tions have  brought  the  responsibility  of 
America  much  nearer  to  the  consciousness  of 
everybody.  Each  day  will  bring  new  prob- 
lems which  must  be  solved  not  only  in  the 
White  House,  but  in  the  whole  area  from 
Maine  to  California.  And  overtowering  all 
of  them  stands  America's  gigantic  task,  to 
give  to  Europe  honorable  peace.  No  greater 
deed,  no  greater  work  for  mankind  was  ever 
within  this  nation's  reach. 

No  doubt  the  lack  of  judicial  attitude  has 
often  sprung  from  the  difficulty  the  average 
159 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

American  has  in  thinking  himself  into  Euro- 
pean politics.  He  takes  an  unhistoric  stand- 
point and  interprets  old  world  movements  by 
motives  and  ideas  which  are  foreign  to  them. 
It  has  often  been  claimed  that  this  lack  of 
insight  into  the  European  mind  is  the  fault 
of  a  particular  party.  I  do  not  think  so. 
Republicans,  Progressives,  and  Democrats 
may  sin  equally  there.  On  the  other  hand, 
their  historically  best  trained  minds  are 
equally  open  to  the  fullest  understanding  of 
Europe  and  especially  of  Germany,  which  is 
perhaps  hardest  to  understand  and  which 
can  least  be  brought  into  a  routine  formula  of 
American  politics.  If  I  consider  the  three 
presidential  leaders  in  which  the  three  par- 
ties have  found  their  marked  expression,  I 
feel  equal  warmth  of  admiration.  Before  me 
lies  a  long  letter,  almost  an  essay,  about  the 
war  from  Colonel  Roosevelt,  and  every  word, 
if  any  new  proof  were  needed,  shows  such 
a  perfect  grasp  of  Europe  as  the  European 
sees  it  that  in  foreign  politics  I  am  surely  a 
Progressive,  if  that  is  Progressivism.  Yet 
I  remember  just  on  the  day  when  Theodore 
Roosevelt  on  his  way  from  Africa  was  the 
guest  of  Emperor  William  in  Berlin  I  had 
160 


THE    AMERICANS 

luncheon  in  the  White  House  with  President 
Taft.  It  was  only  natural  that  his  conversa- 
tion should  have  lingered  about  that  Berlin 
meeting  of  the  two  so  unusual  and  in  many 
respects  so  similar  men.  As  my  wife  and  I 
were  the  only  guests,  Mr.  Taft  spoke  without 
reserve  and  his  whole  delightful  humor  scin- 
tillated through  his  talk.  His  judicious 
statesmanship,  however,  gave  the  keynote, 
and  every  word  indicated  such  a  splendid, 
truly  historic  grasp  of  the  European  lands  in 
world  perspective  that  as  far  as  international 
politics  is  concerned  I  am  thoroughly  a  Re- 
publican, if  that  is  Republicanism.  And  my 
memory  goes  still  further  back.  In  this  study 
of  mine  here  at  the  seashore  where  I  am  writ- 
ing the  pages  of  this  diary  Woodrow  Wilson 
once  sat,  at  that  time  still  president  of  Prince- 
ton, and  we  spoke  long  about  European  move- 
ments and  European  ideals.  I  was  deeply 
impressed  by  his  masterful  analysis  of  the 
deeper  European  energies  from  the  stand- 
point of  an  American.  It  was  that  conversa- 
tion which  made  me,  not  long  after,  express 
in  a  German  paper  the  conviction  that  the 
Democratic  party  surely  could  not  find  a  finer 
and  more  far-sighted  statesman  than  Wilson. 
161 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

No  doubt,  I  am  from  the  depths  of  my  heart 
a  Democrat,  as  far  as  foreign  politics  is  con- 
cerned, if  that  is  typical  Democracy. 

But  even  if  the  average  American  is  un- 
prepared or  unwilling  to  interpret  the  Euro- 
pean conflict  with  European  ideas,  and  meas- 
ures less  with  the  standards  of  the  historian 
than  with  those  of  the  editorial  writer,  I  trust 
that  now  after  the  first  excitement  has  evap- 
orated the  conditions  will  be  more  favorable 
for  a  sincere  neutral  attitude.  The  one-sided 
prejudice  against  the  German  cause  cannot 
possibly  last  through  the  cooler  second  month 
of  war.  All  the  historic  sympathies  w^hich 
had  been  rashly  suppressed  in  the  first  pas- 
sion must  awake  again.  Was  not  the  whole 
development  of  the  United  States  accom- 
panied by  the  good  will  of  political  and  cul- 
tural Germany?  It  is  true  our  schoolbooks 
make  little  of  it.  The  German-Americans 
have  often  pointed  to  the  partiality  with 
which  historic  knowledge  is  implanted  in  the 
pupils  from  the  grade  school  to  the  college. 
They  learn  much  about  the  glorious  help 
which  young  Lafayette  brought  to  the  cause 
of  the  colonies  in  their  struggle  for  indepen- 
dence, but  they  do  not  hear  that  the  service 
162 


THE    AMERICANS 

of  von  Steube;ii  was  more  effective.  After  all, 
we  had  only  last  week  the  anniversary  of 
England's  capture  of  Washington  when  the 
capital  was  burned  and  wantonly  sacked  by 
British  soldiers  and  sailors.  England's  ac- 
tion during  the  Civil  War  bristled  with  un- 
friendliness. It  is  good  that  the  youth  of 
to-day  is  taught  to  suppress  such  reminis- 
cences and  that  the  old  feeling  of  antagonism 
toward  Great  Britain  has  become  rare.  But 
that  ought  not  to  push  into  the  background 
the  historic  fact  that  Germany  has  been  help- 
ing the  American  cause  in  every  hour  of  need 
down  to  the  last  incident  at  Tampico  where  a 
German  cruiser  helped  the  American  refu- 
gees. 

But  with  this  good  will  from  ofificial  Ger- 
many goes  through  two  centuries  the  good 
will  of  the  millions  who  settled  in  the  new 
world  and  helped  with  untiring  energy  to 
make  it  the  America  of  to-day.  They  gave 
their  blood  to  save  the  Union;  they  gave 
their  soul  to  make  it  a  land  of  honesty,  of 
efficiency,  of  achievement  in  every  field. 
Moreover,  the  community  of  interests  be- 
tween Americans  and  Germans  has  steadily 
swelled  the  stream  of  those  who  went  to  Ger- 
163 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

many  to  see,  to  learn,  to  form  friendships. 
The  memory  of  hundreds  of  thousands  lin- 
gers on  happy  hours  in  Germany.  Such 
reminiscences  were  driven  away  in  those  first 
angry  August  weeks;  the  fresher  winds  of 
the  fall  will  bring  them  back. 

The  news  of  the  day  can  only  strengthen 
these  fairer  feelings  toward  Germany.  The 
reports  grow  that  the  Americans  have  been 
surrounded  with  hospitable  kindness  through- 
out Germany.  Every  day  now  brings  new 
stories  of  the  unanimous  effort  with  which 
the  German  people  tried  to  make  easy  the 
discomfort  which  the  war  brought  to  the 
traveling  Americans.  It  is  no  chance  that 
ever  so  many  were  unwilling  to  follow  the 
advice  of  the  ambassadors  and  insisted  on 
staying  on  German  soil  throughout  the  war. 
But  there  are  other  bits  of  news  which  must 
push  sentiment  into  the  same  groove.  The 
Americans  did  not  like  Japan's  mixing  in  at 
the  side  of  England.  This  capturing  of  Ger- 
many's little  colony  in  China  by  a  sly  trick 
when  Germany's  hands  were  bound  had  to 
awake  sympathy  in  every  American.  But 
this  was  outdone  by  the  latest  move  of  the 
campaign  which  has  brought  Hindus  from 
164 


THE    AMERICANS 

India  and  Turkos  from  Africa  into  line 
against  the  German  people.  To  force  these 
colored  races,  which  surely  have  not  the 
slightest  cause  to  fight  the  German  nation, 
into  battle  against  the  Teutons  is  an  act 
which  must  have  brought  a  feeling  of  shame 
for  the  allies  to  every  true  American. 

Yet  it  is  truly  not  necessary  to  bolster  up 
the  sympathy  for  Germany  by  an  aversion  to 
the  acts  of  its  enemies.  Cordial  feelings  of 
Americans  for  the  German  people  are  cer- 
tainly not  dependent  upon  an  animosity 
against  Russia  and  France  and  least  of  all 
against  England.  The  neutrality  for  which 
President  Wilson  fought  and  which  the  Ger- 
mans prayed  for  means  a  suspension  of 
judgment  as  to  the  right  and  wrong  of  the 
war,  hatred  and  condemnation  of  none  of  the 
parties,  sympathy  for  all.  There  is  no  inkling 
of  the  neutrality  which  the  President  upholds 
as  long  as  the  press  indicts  and  convicts  Ger- 
many and  the  Emperor  without  evidence, 
from  mere  passionate  prejudice.  But  the 
feeling  that  America  and  central  Europe 
ought  to  be  bound  together  by  cordial  good 
will  does  not  preclude  in  the  least  the  warm- 
est friendship  with  western  Europe.  If  Ger- 
165 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

man  thoughts  go  out  to  the  time  after  the 
war  at  all  in  this  hour  of  excitement,  they 
wish  for  nothing  better  than  for  a  sincere 
union  of  understanding  between  Germany, 
France,  England,  and  America.  The  Germans 
do  not  preach  hatred  against  their  neighbors, 
but  they  insist  that  it  would  be  a  gigantic 
calamity  if  this  war  were  to  cut  the  ties  of 
the  American  and  the  German  nations,  ties 
of  culture  and  of  intercourse,  of  welfare  and 
of  reform,  of  trade  and  of  industry,  of  science 
and  of  literature,  of  art  and  of  music,  of 
philosophy  and  of  religion. 

The  mere  thought  of  such  an  unfortunate 
result  is  intolerable;  and  yet  even  now, 
though  the  wild  storm  of  the  first  weeks  has 
passed  by,  the  gravest  fears  overshadow  the 
hopes  which  the  last  years  fostered.  It 
would  be  a  disaster  for  both  countries  alike, 
as  the  harmonious  fellowship  and  mutual 
inner  attunement  of  the  two  peoples  were 
among  the  most  valuable  and  most  ideal 
forces  in  modern  civilization. 

From  day  to  day  the  two  nations  sought 
each  other  with  finer  instincts;  the  sym- 
pathies became  keener,  the  interests  more 
abundant.  It  was  a  national  elective  af- 
166 


THE    AMERICANS 

finity  for  which  the  political  friendship 
was  a  fitting  outer  expression.  And  sud- 
denly, a  tornado  is  breaking  into  the 
world:  can  it  really  be  that  with  one  crash 
all  the  ties  are  broken  and  destroyed?  Can 
it  really  be  that  the  friendship  of  yesterday 
has  turned  into  impatient  anger  and  sneering 
disgust?  What  has  happened?  "What  is 
America's  complaint  against  the  Germans? 

To  begin  with  the  outskirts  we  have  had 
to  hear  a  hundred  times  that  Germany  can- 
not expect  the  Americans  to  take  sides  with 
it  in  its  struggle,  as  the  Germans  did  not 
sympathize  with  America  in  its  last  war ;  the 
press  even  belittled  the  American  intentions 
during  the  Spanish  War  and  sneered  at 
American  life  afterward.  It  is  true  that  the 
German  press  had  much  sympathy  with 
Spain,  because  the  Spanish  appeared  so  piti- 
fully weak  compared  with  the  mighty  oppo- 
nent. It  is  true  also  that  at  that  time  the 
Germans  still  knew  little  of  the  spiritual 
America  and  saw  everything  from  the  angle 
of  the  American  chase  for  the  dollar.  This 
has  been  changed  completely.  Moreover, 
while  many  a  superficial  editorial  word  may 
have  then  and  later  irritated  a  sensitive 
167 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

American  reader,  there  was  never  a  line  writ- 
ten which  could  be  compared  with  the  bitter- 
ness and  hatred  against  the  Germans  during 
this  campaign.  The  worst  which  was  said 
was  that  America  went  to  Cuba  not  with  un- 
selfish motives,  but  in  the  service  of  capitalis- 
tic interests.  That  was  unfair;  the  accusa- 
tion was  later  emphatically  withdrawn.  But 
does  that  really  justify  the  American  nation 
in  declaring  that  the  Germans,  when  they  de- 
fend their  homes  against  Russian  and  French 
attack,  are  nothing  but  pirates  and  that  their 
Emperor  ought  to  be  treated  like  a  murderer? 
On  the  other  hand  the  kind  of  superfluous 
criticism  which  can  be  still  found  in  German 
papers  is  utterly  harmless.  It  is  on  the  level 
with  the  American  jokes  about  German  beer 
drinking  and  sauerkraut  eating,  jokes  which 
neither  the  writer  nor  the  reader  really  be- 
lieves. Malicious  essays  like  those  of  Price 
Collier  here  on  the  stupidity  of  the  German 
women  and  the  bad  manners  of  the  German 
men  hardly  find  a  counterpart  nowadays  in 
the  German  discussion  of  American  life,  as 
far  as  responsible  writers  are  concerned.  The 
worst  which  I  found  last  year  were  tasteless 
jokes  on  Secretary  Bryan's  Chautauqua  lec- 
168 


THE    AMERICANS 

turing,  and  yet  I  have  read  a  hundred  times 
sharper  witticisms  about  it  in  Bryan's  native 
land.  The  Americans  have  to-day  no  reason 
to  complain  about  the  German  attitude.  It 
is  in  vain  to  justify  the  American  outbreak 
as  the  resentment  against  unfairness  from 
the  other  side. 

It  is  still  worse  if  American  public  opinion 
is  whipped  with  the  argument  that  Americans 
must  take  the  side  of  the  allies  because  if 
Germany  came  to  increased  power  its  next 
foe  would  be  the  United  States.  It  is  claimed 
that  the  Germans  would  be  ambitious  to  have 
colonies  like  England  and  that  large  prov- 
inces in  Argentine  and  perhaps  in  Brazil  are 
the  long  coveted  goal.  Even  in  the  confusion 
of  war  excitement  such  silliness  ought  to  be 
below  the  level  of  any  decent  editorial  page. 
These  absurdities  have  been  spread  a  hun- 
dred times  by  those  who  hope  to  gain  some 
sly  advantage  from  a  distrust  of  the  Ger- 
man government  by  the  American  people. 
But  a  hundred  and  one  times  they  have  been 
proved  to  be  grotesque  inventions.  It  is  more 
probable  since  Mr.  Williams  of  Massachu- 
setts took  charge  of  Albanian  politics  that 
America  will  establish  a  kingdom  in  the  Euro- 
169 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

pean  Balkans  than  that  Germany  will  estab- 
lish a  colony  in  South  America. 

The  Americans  are  too  little  aware  how 
they  misunderstand  the  German  government 
and  responsible  Germany  altogether  if  they 
identify  it  ever  with  the  fantastic  dreams 
of  the  so-called  Pan-Germanists.  It  is  true 
there  are  a  few  pensioned  naval  officers  and 
retired  colonels  of  the  army  and  some  irre- 
sponsible oration  makers  who  gloriously  out- 
Hearst  the  Hearst  editorials  and  who  on  pa- 
triotic occasions  swallow  some  neighboring 
lands,  preferably  Holland  and  Denmark,  and 
if  they  are  in  noble  spirits  also  half  of  Aus- 
tria and  a  part  of  Turkey.  Nobody  takes 
them  seriously,  and  to  identify  the  govern- 
ment with  such  hashish  dreamers  is  prepos- 
terous. But  even  these  courageous  clowns 
nowadays  leave  Ajnerica  alone  and  respect 
the  Monroe  Doctrine.  It  was  the  most  inex- 
cusable incident  of  the  war's  first  month  that 
certain  newspapers  tried  insistently  to  stir 
up  the  American  crowd  against  Germany  by 
such  treacherous  alarm  cries. 

What  really  remains'?  The  newspapers 
have  forced  the  idea  on  the  nation  that  every 
true  American  dislikes  such  a  personality  as 
170 


THE    AMERICANS 

that  of  the  German  Emperor.  His  constant 
desire  to  fight,  his  militaristic  preparations, 
his  anticultural  belief  in  might  as  against 
right,  must  be  deeply  repugnant  to  every 
American  citizen.  They  do  not  object  to  the 
Czar  of  Russia  or  the  King  of  Servia  or  of 
Italy  or  of  Belgium  or  to  the  Mikado.  The 
German  monarch  alone  is  the  tyrant.  Yet 
he  is  the  man  whom  only  a  year  ago  all 
America  celebrated  after  a  quarter  century 
of  his  reign  as  the  greatest  energy  for  peace 
in  all  Europe.  If  the  Emperor's  life  had 
come  to  an  end  three  months  ago  he  would 
have  figured  in  every  American  schoolbook 
of  European  history  for  centuries  to  come  as 
the  greatest  peace  monarch  of  his  age.  And 
yet  he  would  have  lived  long  enough  truly 
to  be  tested.  Now  since  the  "White  Books" 
have  been  published  in  Berlin  and  London 
and  since  the  actions  behind  the  scenes  in 
the  Emperor's  palace  have  become  more  fully 
understood  we  know  better  than  a  month  ago 
that  he  remained  such  an  agent  for  peace  up 
to  the  last  hour  of  the  days  which  preceded 
the  war.  As  he  had  worked  to  prevent  a 
Pan-European  w^ar  at  the  dangerous  times 
of  the  Balkan  troubles,  so  he  did  again.  He 
171 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

hoped  and  hoped  that  peace  could  be  pre- 
served, until  it  became  evident  that  Russia 
was  playing  a  double  game  and  asked  for 
the  continuance  of  peace  negotiations  while 
it  secretly  carried  the  concentration  of  troops 
beyond  the  point  where  war  would  be  still 
avoidable. 

But  the  American  people  has  made  up  its 
mind  that  Germany  had  slowly  worked  to- 
ward this  war,  because  it  showed  itself  per- 
fectly prepared  when  it  broke  out.  Yes: 
Germany  was  prepared,  has  been  prepared 
for  forty-four  years,  but  had  hoped  that  this 
state  of  mere  preparation  would  last  forty- 
four  years  more.  Every  American  takes  it 
as  a  matter  of  course  that  England  kept 
its  gigantic  navy  always  ready  to  fight,  be- 
cause it  is  vital  for  Great  Britain's  very 
existence ;  he  overlooks  that  an  army  able  to 
fight  in  the  east  and  the  west  was  equally 
necessary  for  the  existence  of  Germany.  If 
that  is  militarism,  the  slightest  neglect  of 
such  a  militaristic  policy  would  have  meant 
sure  disaster  to  the  whole  German  nation 
long  before  the  twentieth  century  started. 
This  vigilant  militarism  which  was  a  national 
insurance  policy  made  neither  the  Emperor 
172 


THE    AMERICANS 

nor  the  government  nor  the  leading  classes 
nor  the  people  at  large  in  the  least  disloyal 
to  the  ideal  aims  of  German  traditions.  Is 
the  will  to  fight  when  the  honor  of  the  coun- 
try is  threatened  so  unknown  to  the  Amer- 
ican soul?  Can  we  forget  that  outburst  of 
fighting  spirit  at  the  Venezuela  time  when 
President  Cleveland  rattled  the  saber?  And 
last  May  when  Huerta  refused  to  salute  the 
flag  one  solitary  congressman  from  Cali- 
fornia made  a  calm  peace  speech ;  he  was  at 
once  isolated:  all  Congress  dashed  toward 
war.  The  Germans  knew  that  for  them  the 
issue  of  the  war  was :  to  be  or  not  to  be. 

Day  after  day  the  Americans  have  seen 
cartoons  denouncing  the  German  men  at  the 
top,  themselves  in  safe  and  comfortable 
places,  ruthlessly  hounding  the  unwilling 
populace  to  the  battlefields.  It  was  as  true 
as  most  of  the  news  on  which  the  Americans 
crystallized  their  opinions.  The  answer  to 
those  cartoons  came  with  ringing  voice  from 
the  fatherland.  In  every  battle  were  princes 
falling,  and  while  millions  had  to  march  into 
the  field  as  regular  or  reserve  soldiers,  more 
than  two  million  other  men  offered  them- 
selves as  volunteers,  two  million  whom  no- 
173 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

body  urged,  but  wbo  felt  the  sacred  call  of 
conscience.  Their  country  was  attacked  in- 
famously; they  wanted  to  die  for  it.  Those 
cartoonists  were  the  men  in  the  safe  places 
who  w^hipped  the  millions  of  peaceful  Amer- 
ican readers  ruthlessly  and  shamefully  to  the 
passionate  attack  against  their  best  friends, 
the  Germans. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE  MORALS  OF  THE  WAR 

Three  million  men  stand  to-day  in  battle 
line  against  one  another.  Three  million  men ! 
As  long  as  men  have  lived  on  earth,  they 
have  fought.  But  all  fighting  through  the 
thousands  of  years  seems  like  mere  skirmish- 
ing compared  with  these  gigantic  armies  of 
armies.  The  world  has  drilled  and  trained 
and  planned  and  worked  through  half  a  cen- 
tury for  this  battle  of  the  millions,  and  a 
thousand  years  may  pass  before  mankind 
witnesses  again  a  fight  of  men  like  this.  The 
results  of  victory  or  defeat  will  be  enormous ; 
men  will  speak  about  it  as  long  as  history 
goes  on — and  yet  there  is  something  greater 
in  the  world  than  even  a  battle  line  which 
girdles  the  globe,  something  endlessly  more 
important  than  triumphant  victory  and  shat- 
tering defeat:  the  issue  of  right  and  wrong. 
If  Germany's  guns  carried  the  day  and  the 
century  and  its  cause  was  not  one  of  right- 
175 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

eousness,  every  German  would  bow  his  head 
in  shame.  If  it  were  overwhelmed  by  the 
number  of  enemies,  every  German  would  be 
stunned  by  grief  at  the  disaster  of  his  father- 
land, but  he  would  remain  proud  of  his  people 
if  the  moral  right  is  with  it.  The  German 
feels  that  for  the  nation  and  the  individual 
alike  Schiller's  word  is  written:  ''Life  is 
not  the  highest  of  goods,  but  guilt  is  the 
greatest  of  all  calamities." 

Germany's  enemies  have  raised  the  cry, 
and  Americans  have  taken  it  up,  that  Ger- 
many has  committed  sin  after  sin.  The  moral 
issue  was  brought  to  the  foreground,  and 
that  portion  of  the  American  press  which 
stands  under  the  spell  of  English  suggestions 
hides  every  German  victory  behind  accusa- 
tions of  treachery  and  immorality.  Germany 
has  broken  the  treaties ;  Germany  committed 
dastardly  atrocities  with  bombs  from  air- 
ships ;  Germany  burned  towns  and  murdered 
the  helpless ;  Germany  shrinks  from  no  crime 
and  no  perfidy.  Is  there  any  truth  in  all  this  ? 
Yes :  one  truth,  which  is  undeniable,  which  is 
sad,  which  is  awful,  namely  that  war  is  war. 
But  shame  on  him  who  poisons  the  wells  of 
public  opinion  by  falsifying  the  atrocious 
176 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

cruelties  which  the  work  of  war  demands 
into  immoralities  when  the  one  side  is  con- 
cerned while  they  are  approved  as  necessities 
when  the  other  side  is  in  question. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  discuss  the  grue- 
some stories  of  nefarious  acts  against  the 
wounded  or  helpless  enemies.  They  are 
hardly  conscious  lies;  they  are  the  hysteric 
illusions  of  overexcited  brains.  The  bystand- 
ers are  really  convinced  that  they  saw  the 
horrible  ferocities.  I  fancy  that  Richard 
Harding  Davis  believed  sincerely  that  he  ac- 
tually saw  those  wild  impossibilities  with 
which  his  reports  are  bristling,  and  even  the 
minor  American  fiction  writers  who  send 
their  romances  from  the  field  of  German  im- 
moralities were  surely  ready  to  take  an  oath 
to  their  inventions.  Every  psychologist 
knows  these  hallucinatory  phenomena  of  the 
witness  stand.  Exactly  the  same  thing,  of 
course,  occurred  on  the  other  side.  Number- 
less German  witnesses  believe  themselves  to 
have  observed  the  most  unspeakable  cruel- 
ties from  Belgians  and  Frenchmen.  It  would 
be  psychologically  most  surprising  if  the  be- 
numbing sight  of  fight  and  death,  of  suffering 
and  wounds,  did  not  upset  many  an  unbal- 
177 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

anced  mind  and  did  not  surround  it  with  a 
whirlwind  of  needless  horrors  and  willful 
cruelties.  The  wildest  exaggerations  must  be 
expected.  On  the  whole  those  alleged  cruel- 
ties and  atrocities  are  probably  on  all  sides 
nothing  but  products  of  horrified  imagina- 
tion, and  nobody  has  a  right  to  blame  the 
victims  of  such  illusions  for  their  terrorizing 
fancies.  But  the  public  ought  to  blame  those 
papers  which  give  broad  display  to  such  ab- 
surd cabled  rumors  whenever  they  come  from 
the  anti-German  side. 

But  how  with  the  reproaches  against  Ger- 
many's official  warfare,  the  burning  of  a  Bel- 
gian town  in  which  the  population  had  se- 
cretly provided  itself  with  firearms  and  shot 
from  the  windows  in  a  sniping  attack  against 
the  troops  through  a  whole  day?  How  with 
the  use  of  bombs  thrown  from  an  airship  into 
Antwerp?  Yes:  war  is  war.  Have  the 
Americans  forgotten  their  own  last  war  on 
a  large  scale?  General  Sherman  wrote: 
' '  The  amount  of  burning,  stealing,  and  plun- 
dering done  by  our  army  makes  me  ashamed 
of  it."  But  this  shame  refers  only  to  the 
private  looting  which  is  anyhow  unthinkable 
in  a  war  of  to-day.  It  does  not  refer  to  the 
178 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

official  destruction.  Sherman  wrote  deliber- 
ately and  officially:  ''I  should  not  hesitate 
to  burn  Savannah,  Charleston,  and  Wilming- 
ton if  the  garrisons  were  needed.  Of  ne- 
cessity in  war  the  commander  on  the  spot 
is  the  judge  and  may  take  your  house,  your 
fields,  your  everything  and  turn  you  all  out 
helpless  to  starve.  Our  duty  is  not  to  build 
up;  it  is  rather  to  destroy  both  the  rebel 
army  and  whatever  wealth  or  property  it  has 
founded  its  boasted  strength  upon."  The 
historians  like  to  call  Sherman  a  "typical 
American."  American  Shermans  of  to-day 
would  act  just  as  the  German  generals  acted 
against  the  sniping  Belgians  on  the  march  to 
Paris.    War  is  war. 

Binding  for  war  are  only  the  international 
laws  on  which  the  nations  have  solemnly 
agreed.  There  is  not  the  slightest  item  of 
such  laws  which  has  not  been  carefully  re- 
spected by  the  German  army  and  navy. 
Those  laws  cannot  be  supplemented  at  any 
moment  by  the  desires  of  sympathetic  by- 
standers. We  all  must  be  full  of  pity  when 
we  hear  that  in  this  war  the  attacks  against 
fortresses  like  Antwerp  and  Paris  are  made 
also  by  bombs  from  airships.  But  it 
179 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

is  a  fact  that  this  is  not  forbidden  by 
the  agreements.  It  was  especially  dis- 
cussed in  the  last  Hague  conference  and 
both  France  and  Germany  voted  in  favor 
of  allowing  this  new  horrible  method.  We 
peace  people,  of  course,  feel  our  nerves  revolt 
against  this  and  other  new  schemes.  When  be- 
fore Liege  masses  of  German  troops  marched 
unwittingly  on  undermined  ground  and 
were  then  killed  by  the  dynamite  explosion, 
impartial  nerves  must  shiver,  too.  And  so 
without  end  before  all  this  strategical  futur- 
ism. But  our  mere  nerves  cannot  be  decisive. 
We  simply  must  acknowledge  that  everything 
is  allowed  which  is  not  forbidden  in  war  and 
no  moral  reproach  is  in  order  as  long  as  the 
international  agreements  are  respected.  The 
professionals  probably  offer  us  a  correct  con- 
solation when  they  claim  that  just  the  re- 
gardless war  is  effective  and  therefore  short, 
while  the  half-hearted  is  war  horror  without 
end.  In  any  case  when  in  the  first  days  of 
the  war  French  aviators  threw  bombs  into 
Nuremberg  and  Coblenz,  the  Americans 
treated  it  as  a  picturesque  event  which  gave 
new  interest  to  modern  warfare  and  which 
showed  brilliantly  the  wonders  of  modern 
380 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

technique.    Only  wlien  the  same  was  done  by 
the  Germans,  America  stood  aghast. 

There  remains  only  one  grave  point:  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium.  No  doubt  Germany 
had  agreed  to  treat  Belgium  as  a  neutral 
state.  But  what  are  the  facts?  On  the  day 
the  war  between  France  and  Germany 
seemed  unavoidable,  it  was  reported  that 
fifty  automobiles  full  of  French  officers 
rushed  over  the  frontier  to  Liege  and  were 
welcomed  in  the  fortress,  which  had  partly 
been  built  by  French  engineers.  Immedi- 
ately afterward  French  aviators  passed 
through  Belgium  on  their  way  to  the  Rhine, 
where  they  began  their  bomb  throwing  at 
the  Coblenz  bridges.  Everything  suggested 
that  Germany's  long-standing  fear  was  jus- 
tified, that  French-speaking  Belgium  was  in 
a  secret  understanding  with  France,  that  it 
would  allow  to  the  French  army  liberties 
which  would  at  once  expose  Germany's  most 
defenseless  portion  to  attack.  Germany  had 
no  right  to  wait  until  it  might  be  too  late. 
It  had  to  force  its  troops  over  Belgian*  ter- 
ritory before  the  French  could  undertake  in 
great  style  what  they  had  started  to  do.  Yet 
Germany  did  not  come  to  Belgium  as  an 
181 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

enemy ;  it  promised  to  repay  any  damage  and 
not  only  guaranteed  the  integrity  of  the  land 
but  was  most  willing  to  make  every  possible 
restitution. 

Belgium  chose  to  put  itself  on  the  side  of 
France,  with  which  its  sympathies  have  al- 
ways connected  it.  It  was  an  hour  in  which 
the  world  was  sure  of  French  victory  as 
Russia  was  battering  at  the  gates  of  Ger- 
many from  the  other  side  and  England  was  to 
give  its  mighty  aid,  too.  Belgium  thus  be- 
came one  of  the  allies,  enthusiastically  will- 
ing to  help  in  this  world  rush  against  Ger- 
many. Did  this  mean  that  Germany  attacked 
a  land  which  was  unprotected  and  which  had 
relied  for  its  safety  on  its  neutrality  papers  ? 
Certainly  not.  The  story  of  the  fights  about 
Liege  tells  of  the  gigantic  fortifications  with 
which  Belgium  had  prepared  itself  for  just 
this  German  attack.  Belgium  was  one  great 
fortified  camp,  and  every  stone  in  the  walls 
must  have  been  carried  to  them  with  the 
understanding  that  the  course  of  historic 
events  in  the  next  war  would  force  France 
and  Germany  to  fight  on  Belgian  battle- 
grounds, and  that  Belgium  ought  to  take 
sides  with  the  probable  winner.  Belgians  and 
182 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

Germans  did  not  meet  for  the  first  time.  A 
great  war  reporter  from  the  time  when  the 
reporting  was  still  wireless  and  the  warring 
still  fireless,  Julius  Caesar  tells  that  the  Bel- 
gians are  very  courageous  and  that  they  live 
next  to  the  Germans,  who  are  settled  in  the 
Rhine  region,  and  that  they  live  in  constant 
warfare  with  them. 

Belgium  knew  exactly  that  these  neutrality 
treaties  were  not  treaties  comparable  to  the 
contracts  of  private  persons  who  are  bound 
by  the  laws  of  the  land  and  by  the  laws  of 
honesty  to  fulfill  them  under  every  possible 
condition.  It  is  nothing  but  sheer  hypocrisy 
if  the  enemies  of  Germany,  including  the 
Anglophile  portion  of  the  American  press, 
behave  as  if  this  had  not  been  common  knowl- 
edge the  world  over.  This  kind  of  treaties  has 
been  violated  in  the  last  fifty  years  almost  as 
often  as  any  conflicts  have  happened.  Only 
this  morning  the  papers  report  China's  offi- 
cial protest  against  the  breach  of  the  neutral- 
ity treaty  by  Japan,  which  has  landed  troops 
to  fight  against  Kiau  Chau  in  plain  defiance 
of  the  agreement.  There  was  no  life  need 
for  Japan  to  break  the  treaty,  as  there  was 
for  Germany,  but  of  course  Japan  is  now 
183 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

England's  friend  and  its  breach  of  neutrality 
is  therefore  perfectly  agreeable  and  welcome 
on  Broadway. 

Did  not  America  break  its  solemn  treaty 
with  Colombia  when  a  vital  interest  was  in- 
volved? Is  not  the  majority  of  Congress 
even  inclined  to  apologize  for  the  wrong 
which  was  done  to  Colombia  in  the  Panama 
revolution  ?  Yet  could  Roosevelt  really  have 
acted  otherwise  f  Was  it  not  true,  moral 
statesmanship  to  put  America's  canal  work 
above  a  treaty  which,  like  all  such  interna- 
tional agreements,  was  made  with  the  reser- 
vation that  it  holds  only  if  it  does  not  come 
into  conflict  with  the  life  and  honor  of  the 
people  involved.  Gladstone,  to  whom  the 
present  English  statesmen  refer,  has  clearly 
said  that  this  is  also  England's  view  con- 
cerning the  treaties  with  Belgium.  It  was 
England 's  view  until  it  became  convenient  to 
change  it  for  the  purpose  of  denouncing  Ger- 
many. 

America's  most  popular  statesman  has 
said  a  hundred  times  that  such  international 
arbitration  treaties  are  not  worth  the  paper 
on  which  they  are  written  and  that  they  are 
too  often  even  dangerous,  because  they  give 
184 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

an  illusory  feeling  of  safety.  They  seem  to 
abolish  the  fundamental  law  of  five  thousand 
years  of  history  that  ultimately  the  life  needs 
of  a  healthy  nation  are  decisive.  To  be  sure, 
Belgium  knew  better  and  made  its  war  plans. 
It  knew  that  such  agreements  are  at  pres- 
ent not  more  than  a  matter  of  international 
etiquette.  Certainly  life  goes  on  more 
smoothly  and  more  pleasantly,  if  we  stick  to 
the  rules  of  etiquette  and  to  the  prescrip- 
tions of  nice  manners.  But  everybody  knows 
that  etiquette  stops  when  the  house  is  on  fire 
and  that  good  manners  must  be  forgotten 
even  by  the  best  mannered  when  life  and 
death  are  involved.  Germany  did  what  any 
other  state  would  have  done,  did  it  with  re- 
gret and  with  the  best  will  not  to  bring  any 
suifering  to  Belgium,  if  Belgium  only  would 
not  join  the  allies.  But  Germany  could  do 
what  it  did  with  a  clean  conscience ;  it  did  not 
violate  the  higher  laws  of  honor. 

Will  it  ever  be  otherwise?  Can  we  hope 
that  treaties  and  arbitration  will  ever  be  a 
substitute  for  the  wars  of  mankind?  I  do 
not  believe  it.  I  suppose  I  have  spent  more 
time  in  the  last  ten  years  reading  peace  lit- 
erature than  with  any  other  branch  of  popu- 
185 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

lar  interests,  and  I  have  devoted  myself  to 
the  study  of  it  with  sincere  admiration  for 
this  noble  and  most  inspiring  of  efforts. 
I  am  on  the  side  of  the  peace  movement  with 
all  my  heart;  I  believe  in  its  magnificent 
work  and  should  gladly  do  Avhatever  is  in  my 
power  to  propagate  it  and  to  serve  it.  But 
I  utterly  reject  the  idea  that  this  propaganda 
for  peace  and  this  fight  against  war  can  be 
compared  with  the  struggle  of  the  social  re- 
formers against  crime  or  with  that  of  the 
hygienists  against  disease.  Such  compari- 
sons create  a  distorting  perspective.  War  is 
not  crime  and  war  is  not  disease. 

I  should  much  rather  compare  the  relation 
between  the  treaty  believers  and  the  believ- 
ers in  war  with  the  relation  between  the  pro- 
tectionists and  the  free  traders  in  the  eco- 
nomic field.  I  myself  believe  heartily  in  pro- 
tectionism and  feel  in  the  fullest  sympathy 
with  the  efforts  of  those  w^ho  argue  against 
free  trade  and  against  the  economic  destruc- 
tion which  results  from  unbridled  commercial 
and  industrial  rivalry.  But  this  does  not 
mean  that  I  consider  free  trade  a  crime  or 
a  disease.  On  the  contrary,  I  know  exactly 
that  there  are  natural  limits  to  every  protec- 
186 


TJIE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

tionist  policy.  The  liigli  tariff  has  to  be  low- 
ered as  soon  as  monopolistic  abuses  arise, 
and  concessions  to  free  trade  are  sometimes 
necessary.  To  be  sure,  even  when  the  time 
of  the  free  traders  comes,  we  protectionists 
hope  that  the  tariffs  will  be  only  lowered 
and  not  entirely  abolished.  The  friends  of 
treaties  and  arbitration  must  hope  in  the 
same  way  that  when  the  hours  of  war  come 
international  treaties  will  not  be  entirely 
eliminated.  The  work  of  the  Hague  confer- 
ences and  of  those  thousand  agencies  in  the 
Carnegie  world  can  be  a  magnificent  gain  for 
civilization  and  a  blessing  for  mankind  even 
if  their  achievements  can  never  be  substituted 
for  war. 

We  workers  for  peace  and  arbitration  must 
not  deceive  ourselves :  whatever  the  outcome 
of  the  present  war  may  be,  there  will  be  little 
faith  in  arbitration  in  the  near  future.  We 
have  read  so  often  that  great  wars  will  no 
longer  be  possible  because  the  power  of  the 
world  has  gone  into  the  hands  of  two  classes 
which  are  mightier  than  governments  and 
armies,  the  labor  class  with  the  socialist  vote 
and  the  banker  class  with  the  financial  influ- 
ence. We  have  heard  that  they  would  not 
187 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

allow  war.  Can  we  ever  enjoy  this  confi- 
dence again?  There  is  no  doubt  that  capi- 
talism did  not  want  this  European  war.  The 
bankers  of  the  world  worked  against  it,  and 
yet  when  the  national  passions  were  awak- 
ened the  opposition  of  the  stock  exchanges 
was  no  more  obstacle  than  straws  before  an 
express  train.  The  ineffectiveness  of  the  so- 
cialist opposition  was  still  more  surprising. 
The  army  of  workingmen  had  nowhere  de- 
nounced war  more  than  in  Germany,  but 
when  the  sudden  attack  of  Russia  on  Ger- 
many became  known  the  socialist  opposition 
turned  like  a  flash  into  enthusiasm  for  the 
war.  The  socialists  in  the  Reichstag  who 
represent  nearly  five  million  votes  cheered 
the  Emperor  and  approved  unanimously  the 
gigantic  budget  for  the  fight.  Their  leaders 
entered  the  army  as  volunteers. 

Moreover,  the  faith  in  the  binding  power 
of  treaties  must  be  thoroughly  discredited, 
not  because  a  German  army  passed  through 
Belgium,  but  above  all  because  Italy  refused 
to  fight.  The  alliance  of  Italy  with  Germany 
and  Austria  was  the  one  solid  stone  in  the 
foundation  of  European  politics.  Every  cal- 
culation as  to  the  international  future  began 
188 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

with  the  one  claim  that  if  ever  Germany  and 
Austria  had  to  fight  against  three  enemies, 
they  could  count  on  Italy's  loyalty.  The 
treaties  which  pledged  this  help  appeared  so 
firm  and  trustworthy  that  nothing  could  de- 
prive Berlin  and  Vienna  of  Rome's  help  in 
the  hour  of  danger.  And  yet  when  the  time 
came  Italian  lawyers  found  technicalities  by 
which  they  could  pose  as  having  the  right  to 
refuse  the  sacrifice.  If  this  Italian  treaty 
failed,  who  can  hope  for  a  treaty  which  could 
not  be  pushed  aside  by  a  skillful  misinterpre- 
tation? After  this  breach  of  faith  the  world 
knows  that  a  treaty  will  be  binding  exactly 
as  long  as  it  serves  the  realistic  interests  of 
the  nation.  The  treaties  of  the  Triple  En- 
tente— or  in  view  of  Belgium,  it  ought  prob- 
ably to  have  been  called  for  a  long  time  the 
Quadruple  Entente — worked  well  because 
France  and  England  had  an  actual  interest 
to  jump  in  at  the  time  when  the  colossal  ar- 
mies of  Russia  moved  against  Germany. 

But  the  essential  point  remains  after  all 
that  war  has  its  own  value  and  morals.  Just 
as  free  trade  is  not  only  a  negative  element 
in  human  progress,  an  opposition  to  protec- 
tionism, but  has  its  positive  advantages  for 
189 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

the  development  of  economic  life,  war  too  is 
not  simply  a  disruption  of  the  international 
peace,  but  can  become  a  positive  creator  of 
better  and  higher  forms  of  the  life  of  man- 
kind.    First  of  all,  only  war  can  adjust  the 
power  of  countries  to  the  changing  stages  of 
their  inner  development.  It  is  easily  said,  and 
the  average  American  likes  to  say  it,  that 
nations  ought  to  respect  the  possessions  of 
other  nations  as  individuals  respect  the  pri- 
vate property  of  their  neighbors.     But  this 
apparently  highest  morality  would  be   the 
grossest  immorality.    The  property  of  a  man 
can  grow  through  his  industry;  there  is  un- 
limited supply ;  he  does  not  need  to  take  any- 
thing by  force  from  his  lazier  or  his  less  in- 
telligent competitor.    But  if  war  were  abol- 
ished the  peoples  which  have  poor  land  to- 
day must  remain  poor  through  the  centuries ; 
however  much  they  may  progress  internally 
they  would  have  no  right  to  expand,  as  they 
would  do  so  at  the  expense  of  their  neigh- 
bors.    The  peoples  which  are  on  rich  land 
could  be  sure  to  retain  their  possessions,  even 
if  they  became  unworthy  and  useless  for  the 
march  of  civilization.    The  world's  progress 
has  depended  at  all  times  upon  the  expansive 

190 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

ascendency  of  the  sound,  strong,  solid  and 
able  nations  and  the  shrinking  of  those  which 
have  lost  their  healthy  qualities  and  have  be- 
come unfit  or  decadent.  Why  is  one  particu- 
lar stage  of  this  international  development, 
the  chance  distribution  of  power  to-day  or  to- 
morrow, more  worthy  of  legal  conservation 
than  any  previous? 

Once  the  sun  never  sank  on  the  world  em- 
pire of  Spain.  Would  it  have  been  better  if 
no  enemies  could  have  dismembered  it,  when 
it  began  to  hinder  the  advance  of  mankind? 
Was  it  not  righteous  when  finally  America 
took  a  portion  of  Spain's  ill-treated  posses- 
sions under  its  protection?  Where  are  the 
vast  realms  of  Portugal,  of  Plolland,  of  Tur- 
key, to-day?  Was  it  wrong  that  the  Amer- 
ican colonies  disturbed  the  legal  status  of 
England's  possessions?  The  laws  of  the 
equity  courts  applied  to  nations  must  stifle 
progress,  must  forcibly  insure  the  perma- 
nency of  any  chance  monopoly,  of  any  inher- 
ited domain,  for  which  the  cultural  inner 
right  may  have  long  ago  been  lost. 
^  When  Prussia  was  defeated  by  Napoleon 
in  1806,  it  really  had  failed  to  preserve  the 
sterling  qualities  which  secured  the  victories 
191 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

of  Frederick  the  Great.  The  old  spirit  of 
duty  and  thoroughness  had  yielded  for  a 
generation  to  flabbiness  and  frivolity.  Prus- 
sia deserved  the  humiliation  and  the  losses 
which  sobered  it  again  and  stirred  it  up  to  a 
new  moral  rise.  If  every  nation's  boundaries 
were  guaranteed  by  a  world  court,  mankind 
would  necessarily  sink.  A  new  adjustment 
to  the  inner  growth  or  decay  must  set  in  from 
time  to  time.  Spanish  misrule  in  Cuba,  Tur- 
kish misrule  in  the  Balkans,  had  to  stop.  It 
may  be  that  it  is  time  to  stop  Russian  mis- 
rule in  Poland. 

But  often  it  would  be  unfair  to  speak  of 
national  wrong.  It  may  be  that  both  rivals 
are  morally  right  in  their  wishes,  but  that 
their  wishes  cannot  be  harmonious.  If  two 
men  love  the  same  woman,  neither  of  them 
is  wrong,  and  yet  only  one  can  possess  her. 
If  two  nations  grow,  there  may  be  conflict- 
ing needs  of  expansion;  both  may  need  a 
strip  of  land,  a  harbor,  an  island,  an  outlet 
to  the  coast,  if  they  are  to  develop  their  re- 
sources. Neither  Russia  nor  Japan  was  in 
the  wrong  when  their  wholesome  growth  led 
them  to  mutual  interference.  No  tribunal  of 
the  world  can  find  in  such  cases  a  decision,  be- 
192 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

cause  it  is  no  question  of  right.  Both  parties 
are  equally  on  moral  ground,  and  the  source 
of  the  conflict  is  only  the  scarcity  of  the  avail- 
able land,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  unlimited 
goods  which  the  individuals  covet.  Then 
strength  alone  can  bring  a  final  decision. 

To  be  sure,  the  sacrifice  of  blood  may  be 
terrific  and  the  thought  of  the  carnage  must 
make  us  shudder  in  times  of  peace.  But  the 
progress  of  the  world  demands  a  higher 
point  of  view.  Every  human  being  must  die. 
Is  there  a  nobler  death  than  to  give  one's 
life  for  the  better  life  of  the  nation,  to  die 
that  the  country  may  live  a  fuller  embodi- 
ment of  the  national  ideals?  For  the  in- 
dividual, sudden  death  on  the  battlefield  in 
the  overwhelming  excitement  is  much  less 
cruel  than  the  agonies  which  millions  of 
deathbeds  bring  in  peaceful  homes.  And  we 
ought  not  to  forget  the  solemn  words  of 
President  Wilson  who,  before  the  coffins  of 
the  victims  of  Vera  Cruz,  said  in  deep  emo- 
tion: "I  never  was  under  fire,  but  I  fancy 
that  there  are  some  things  just  as  hard.  I 
fancy  that  it  is  just  as  hard  to  do  your  duty 
when  men  are  sneering  at  you  as  when  they 
are  shooting  at  you.'* 

193 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

But  the  sacrifices  which  the  nation  brings 
in  war  must  anyhow  not  be  viewed  with  ref- 
erence to  individuals.  If  a  nation  is  victori- 
ous— and  the  hope  of  victory  is  of  course  the 
only  motive  which  makes  war  possible — the 
nation  may  gain  ten  lives  for  every  one  which 
it  spends.  The  American  colonies  spilled 
costly  blood,  but  if  those  lives  had  not  been 
given,  the  present  territory  of  the  United 
States  would  be  settled  by  twenty  instead 
of  a  hundred  millions.  If  the  German  states. 
had  not  sacrificed  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
lives,  Germany  would  never  have  reached 
that  strength  and  wealth  and  through  them 
that  industrial  and  scientific,  technical  and 
hygienic  progress  which  meant  life  and  hap- 
piness for  millions  on  millions  who  would 
have  remained  unborn  or  would  have  died  in 
childhood.  The  imagination  of  mankind  is 
too  easily  impressed  by  sudden  dramatic 
events,  compared  with  the  slow  working  of 
destructive  forces.  If  the  Titanic  sinks,  the 
globe  is  aghast,  but  if  a  ten  times  larger 
number  of  human  beings  are  destroyed  by 
avoidable  accidents  through  carelessness  in 
the  structure  and  service  of  the  railways,  it 
is  hardly  noticed.  If  a  state  in  undisturbed 
194 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

peace  remains  on  a  low  level  of  hygiene  and 
science,  lias  poor  labor  legislation,  does  not 
protect  the  women  and  children,  has  a  high 
criminal  record,  indulges  in  alcohol,  is 
scourged  by  venereal  diseases  and  infected 
by  the  small  family  habit,  the  loss  and  the 
maiming  of  human  beings  is  a  hundred  times 
larger  than  that  which  may  come  on  the 
battlefield.  A  victorious  war  may  bring  to 
such  a  nation  a  complete  regeneration:  the 
moral  energies  awake ;  vice  is  repressed ;  life 
is  protected;  education  flourishes;  hygiene 
spreads;  science  rebuilds  the  land;  prosper- 
ity grows;  temperance  and  self-discipline 
prevail;  family  life  can  expand  in  the  new 
abundance.  For  every  boy  who  dies,  a  score 
of  men  and  women  in  the  next  generation 
will  find  the  means  of  health  and  happiness. 
Nobody  dies  at  Thermopylae  without  giving 
life  to  hundreds. 

A  gigantic  destruction  of  human  life  such 
as  this  war  demands  must  naturally  force  on 
everyone  the  wish  for  a  substitute  which  is 
less  painful  to  the  imagination.  But  any 
schemes  which  renounce  those  higher  gifts 
of  war  that  serve  the  historic  progress  of 
mankind  are  utterly  unfit  and  would  never  be 
195 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

of  lasting  value.  It  might  not  be  difficult  to 
construct  plans  which  conserve  the  chance 
distribution  of  national  possessions  to-day 
still  more  firmly  than  any  mere  treaty  and 
arbitration  schemes.  But,  wherever  the  aim 
is  simply  to  guarantee  the  present  national 
boundaries  without  means  to  change  them 
in  constant  adjustment  to  new  inner  needs, 
the  plan  is  condemned  by  the  tribunal  of  his- 
toric morality. 

I,  for  my  part,  see  only  one  logical  possi- 
bility. War-making  could  be  overcome  only 
if  the  fundamental  condition  of  wars  were 
artificially  changed,  and  this  would  not  be 
utterly  beyond  man's  power.  Almost  all  the 
wars  between  nations  have  been  struggles 
to  gain  territory  or  at  least  to  deprive  other 
nations  of  their  territory.  International 
wars  would  disappear  if  nations  did  not  own 
their  countries.  The  idea  of  such  a  state  of 
mankind  would  be  entirely  parallel  to  that 
of  socialism  for  individuals  in  the  state.  The 
socialistic  plan  abolishes  the  economic  strug- 
gle of  the  individuals  by  eliminating  capital- 
ism. This  world  plan  for  the  nations  would 
abolish  the  struggle  of  war  by  eliminating 
territorialism.  The  territory  on  the  globe 
196 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

would  be  distributed  so  that  any  one  million 
beings  would  receive  an  equal  share.  Of 
course,  it  would  not  be  equality  of  size  but  of 
value.  The  territory  of  Turkey  even  to-day 
is  larger  than  that  of  France,  Germany, 
England  and  Italy  taken  together.  The 
equal  distribution  would  therefore  involve 
very  different  areas.  But,  fundamentally, 
any  one  million  persons  would  gain  equal 
chances,  and,  as  with  the  growth  or  decay  of 
the  population  and  with  the  development  of 
the  territory  new  distributions  would  always 
be  arranged,  no  one  would  have  any  interest 
in  fighting.  No  nation  would  possess  land 
any  more  than  the  socialistic  individual 
would  possess  capital. 

This  seems  to  me  the  only  possible  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  which  would  not  stifle 
the  progress  of  mankind.  As  long  as  nations 
have  possessions  of  land,  there  will  be  con- 
stant need  of  new  adjustment  which  no  hu- 
man court,  but  only  war,  can  regulate.  The 
anti-territorialism  would  bring  to  the  nations 
all  the  blessings  which  are  hoped  from  anti- 
capitalism  for  the  individuals.  There  would 
be  no  poor,  and  no  economic  misery,  if  so- 
cialism were  carried  through ;  there  would  be 
197 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

no  militarism  and  no  war,  if  cosmochorism 
were  the  scheme  of  the  world.  The  word 
cosmochorism  is  formed  from  the  Greek 
chora,  the  land.  A  cosmopolitan  order  of 
mankind  would  be  one  in  which  the  state 
loses  its  individuality;  in  the  cosmochoristie 
order  the  nations  would  retain  their  state 
forms,  but  their  land  would  belong  to  the 
whole  world.  I  do  think  that  the  transition 
to  socialism  is  possible  and  would  not  even 
be  extremely  difficult  in  our  present  days.  I 
think  that  an  equal  distribution  of  land  for 
all  the  peoples  on  earth  without  any  one  peo- 
ple having  a  right  to  possession  of  land 
would  be  equally  possible.  Cosmochorism 
might  be  carried  out  even  without  externally 
changing  much  in  the  present  status.  But  it 
would  carry  with  it  all  those  important  and 
thousand  times  discussed  disadvantages  of 
the  socialistic  system.  Most  men  are  still 
convinced  that  the  evils  of  capitalism  are  less 
than  those  which  a  socialistic  order  would 
involve.  The  stimulus  which  the  possession 
of  private  and  inheritable  property  has  given 
to  the  world  ought  not  to  bo  dispensed  with. 
The  progress  of  mankind  in  the  same  way 
needs  the  possibility  of  private  land  posses- 
198 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

sion  by  the  individual  nations;  it  needs  the 
rivalry  and  I  believe  that  such  an  anti-terri- 
torialistic  plan  ought  ultimately  to  be  de- 
feated, for  the  same  reasons  for  which  the 
majority  of  the  civilized  nations  still  opposes 
the  socialism  of  the  anti-capitalists.  But  this 
is  certain:  As  long  as  private  possession  of 
land  by  the  nations  is  sanctioned,  incessant 
changes  in  the  size  of  the  territories  are 
needed  and  must  be  secured  by  free  competi- 
tion. 

Of  course,  it  may  happen  that  the  industri- 
ous, intelligent  merchant  has  bad  luck  and 
remains  poor  while  his  less  worthy  rival 
grows  rich  by  accident  or  trickery  1  no  un- 
failing justice  lies  in  the  decision  of  the  ac- 
count books.  Yet  on  the  whole  our  economic 
system  is  backed  by  the  belief  that  free  com- 
petition brings  gain  to  the  worthy  and  keeps 
down  the  less  efficient.  In  this  sense  cer- 
tainly no  unfailing  justice  lies  in  the  decision 
of  the  weapons,  but  in  the  great  average 
history  has  proved  that  those  nations  will 
rise  which  are  worthy  of  it  and  those  will 
fall  which  deserve  punishment  from  the  high- 
est point  of  view  of  civilization.  Success  or 
failure  in  war  may  come  to  nations  without 
199 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

any  reference  to  certain  outlying  valuable 
factors  of  national  culture.  France  was 
beaten  by  Germany  at  a  time  when  it  was  su- 
perior to  its  opponent  in  the  art  of  painting. 
But  on  the  whole  the  empire  of  the  third 
Napoleon  deserved  to  crumble. 

No  reasonable  man  would  judge  a  univer- 
sity by  the  victories  or  defeats  of  its  football 
teams.  There  is  hardly  any  inner  connection ; 
a  miserable  university  may  have  a  splendid 
football  squad  and  vice  versa.  The  truly 
valuable  energies  of  a  college  are  not  ex- 
pressed in  such  a  sport  appendage.  But  it  is 
different  with  the  war  team  of  a  nation. 
This  really  does  embrace  many  of  the  essen- 
tial traits  and  virtues  of  the  people.  The 
intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  a  nation 
do  come  to  expression  in  a  modem  war.  It 
is  not  mere  strength  and  not  mere  pluck  and 
least  of  all  mere  possession  of  guns  which 
decides  to-day  in  warfare.  It  is  the  total 
makeup  of  a  nation  with  its  thoroughness 
and  its  energy  and  its  mentality  and  its  readi- 
ness to  bring  sacrifices. 

To  be  sure,  such  a  test  has  value  only  if 
one  stands  against  one,  or  two  against  two. 
If  the  armies  of  six  nations  join  to  make  war 
200 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

on  two,  the  moral  qualities  of  the  war  are 
pushed  into  the  background.  Three  football 
teams  against  one  would  be  no  real  test  for 
the  outnumbered  party.  The  allied  nations 
cannot  prove  any  higher  qualities  and  there- 
fore cannot  possibly  earn  any  honors  in  this 
European  war,  as  their  final  victory  would 
mean  only  a  quantitative  superiority,  the 
power  of  inexhaustible  combined  resources. 
If  one  stood  against  one,  if  France  and  Ger- 
many were  left  to  fight  the  war  alone,  no- 
body could  even  now,  only  five  weeks  after 
•the  declaration,  have  any  doubt  that  the  en- 
ergies of  the  German  empire  proved  much 
superior  to  those  of  the  French  republic:  the 
army  stands  near  the  gates  of  Paris  and  no 
French  soldier  is  on  German  soil  in  spite  of 
Belgian  and  English  help.  If  it  were  only  a 
Franco-German  War,  as  a  generation  ago, 
France  would  be  completely  defeated  to-day. 
When  future  historians  study  the  under- 
lying conditions  and  factors  of  this  European 
war,  they  will,  no  doubt,  recognize  that  this 
superiority  of  the  German  army  indeed  does 
not  result  from  a  merely  outer  professional 
war  technique,  but  comes  because  the  German 
army  is  the  embodiment  of  the  national  soul 
201 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

with  all  its  intellectual  and  moral  energies. 
It  is  the  same  soul  which  in  peaceful  hours 
works  toward  science  and  industry,  toward 
literature  and  social  reform.  With  scientific 
exactitude  every  detail  of  the  campaigns  has 
been  worked  out  and  prepared ;  with  unfail- 
ing thoroughness  the  strategical  ideas  have 
been  carried  through;  with  iron  self -dis- 
cipline the  millions  have  been  forged  to- 
gether into  one  powerful  machine;  with  un- 
swerving loyalty  the  nation  has  rallied  to  its 
leader  and  has  stood  by  its  ally ;  with  moral 
enthusiasm  the  whole  people  have  known 
only  the  one  thought :  to  sacrifice  all  for  right 
and  for  honor.  The  true  story  is  nowhere 
better  told,  nowhere  more  sincerely  and  with- 
out any  retouching  than  in  the  personal  let- 
ters which  friend  writes  to  friend.  Nothing 
there  is  made  up  for  public  use.  They  are 
documents  of  spontaneous  emotion.  It  is 
marvelous  how  they  agree  in  their  view  of 
the  situation  and  as  to  the  temper  of  the 
German  people.  I  have  before  me  the  letter 
of  a  young  man  in  the  Rhine  valley  to  his 
American  fiancee.  The  handwriting  shows 
his  inner  excitement.  I  may  render  a  trans- 
lation here,  as  it  is  so  typical. 
202 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

You  simply  cannot  imagine  how  sad  and  yet  how 
inspiring  everything  here  is.  Since  an  hour  ago  I 
have  known  that  England  too  has  declared  war  on 
us.  It  will  be  a  .struggle  of  life  and  death.  From 
all  sides  they  fall  upon  us.  We  might  have  left 
Austria  alone ;  then  we  should  have  had  peace.  And 
yet  not  a  single  man  wavered  even  for  a  second 
when  the  question  came  to  us  whether  we  ought 
loyally  to  keep  faith  with  Austria  or  not.  Our 
people  is  going  into  this  war  with  such  moral 
earnestness  and  is  so  deeply  impressed  with  the 
feeling  of  its  right  and  of  its  duty  and  with  such 
indignation  at  the  frivolous,  long  prepared  breach 
of  peace  and  the  deceitfulness  of  our  enemies  that 
you  cannot  imagine  it  at  all.  The  people  rises  with 
its  tasks  to  a  tremendous  height ;  men  become  better 
and  nobler;  all  the  good  instincts  become  wide 
awake.  No  faintheartedness, — no  narrowminded- 
ness, — no  timidity,  but  at  the  same  time  no  boast- 
ing, no  arrogance !  Everything  is  done  with  a  quiet, 
earnest  feeling  of  responsibility. 

It  is  inspiring  to  see  this  enthusiasm  with  which 
all  hurry  to  the  standards,  to  hear  those  roaring 
cheers  with  which  they  are  brought  to  the  railway 
trains  which  go  to  the  front.  Even  the  poorest  give 
every  bit  which  they  have.  There  are  no  longer 
any  political  parties  in  Germany ;  all  are  one.  Then 
again  you  see  scenes  which  make  your  heart  break. 
I  saw  yesterday  a  mother  who  took  leave  of  five 
sons.  "Women  and  children  hang  weeping  upon  the 
father  of  the  family,  whom  the  fatherland  calls. 
203 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

But  everyone  feels:  we  shall  win, — ^because  we  have 
not  only  the  might  but  the  right  on  our  side.  This 
will  be  the  most  terrible  war  which  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  Hundreds  of  thousands  will  have  to  die, 
and  a  tremendous  sorrow  will  go  through  the  lands. 
But  we  shall  win  over  unscrupulous  force,  over 
hatred  and  envy. 

When  you  receive  this  letter  the  first  battles  will 
have  been  fought.  At  this  time  the  mobilization  of 
our  armies  is  going  on  in  perfect  calmness.  All 
is  running  smoothly  like  a  machine.  We  shall  send 
millions  into  the  field.  The  sons  of  the  Emperor 
and  of  all  the  other  German  princes  go  to  the  front, 
many  as  simple  lieutenants.  I  myself  have  not 
served  in  the  army  and  should  be  called  only  if  the 
last  man  is  needed.  But  I  shall  certainly  not  wait 
until  that  time  comes.  To-morrow  I  shall  put  my- 
self with  my  motor  car  at  the  disposal  of  the  army 
and  hope  sincerely  that  there  will  be  use  for  me. 
You  will  not  blame  me  for  it,  I  am  sure.  I  love 
life  a  hundred  times  more  since  I  have  found  you, 
but  here  the  fatherland  calls  me. 

Writer  on  writer  says  exactly  tlie  same. 
This  morning  I  got  from  my  best  friend  in 
Berlin  a  letter  which  begins  as  follows : 

War !    The  years  of  our  youth  were  inspired  by 
the  ideas  of  the  great  time  which  created  the  Ger- 
man empire.     To-day  a  new  furor  Teutonicus  has 
burst  out.    To  live  through  this  is  worth  a  lifetime. 
204 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

Our  nation  has  been  torn  from  the  deepest  peace 
and  we  have  seen  a  rising  of  the  people  such  as 
the  world  has  never  seen  before.  Every  German  felt 
that  the  existence  of  Germany  as  a  cultural  world 
energy  was  at  stake.  With  a  solemn  enthusiasm, 
without  oratory  and  without  jingoism,  the  whole 
nation  stood  by  the  Kaiser  like  one  man.  There 
were  no  longer  any  Catholics  or  any  Social  Demo- 
crats, not  even  Poles  and  Alsatians,  but  only  Ger- 
mans. They  felt  themselves  as  bearers  of  civiliza- 
tion against  the  barbaric  Pan- Slavism,  as  bearers 
of  ideals  against  the  selfish  commercial  spirit  of 
England,  as  bearers  of  sober  efficiency  against  the 
phrases  of  France.  There  was  not  a  single  deserter, 
and  millions  of  volunteers.  Everyone  wanted  to 
offer  his  life.  This  iron  will  to  win  must  lead  to 
victory.  In  Germany  not  a  soul  thinks  of  the  possi- 
bility of  a  defeat.  The  spirit  which  animates  the 
whole  nation  is  simply  marvelous  and  admirable. 
There  is  no  reckless  overconfidence,  no  drunkenness 
of  spirit,  but  a  sober,  proud  consciousness  of  inner 
strength  and  of  a  righteous  cause. 

Indeed  every  letter  reiterates  this  moral 
enthusiasm,  this  new  inner  unity  of  the  na- 
tion, and  one  thing  above  all,  the  tremendous 
increase  of  the  monarchical  conviction.  The 
complete  failure  of  the  American  press  to 
grasp  the  true  historic  meaning  of  this  war 
and  its  inner  consequences  will  later  be  rec- 
205 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

ognized  perhaps  in  no  point  more  strongly 
than  in  the  absurd  persistency  with  which  it 
repeats  the  prophecy  that  the  war  will  weaken 
the  monarchical  idea  and  create  a  popular 
desire  for  an  imitation  of  republican  gov- 
ernment. So  far  only  one  great  historic  fact 
stands  out,  that  the  German  nation  and  the 
Emperor  were  never  more  one  than  since  the 
hour  when  the  war  against  Russia  broke  out, 
and  that  in  the  twenty-seven  years  of  the 
Kaiser's  reign  the  love  for  the  Emperor  and 
the  conviction  that  the  monarchical  state 
form  is  the  ideal  form  of  government  for  the 
great  German  nation  was  never  so  deep  and 
penetrating  as  to-day. 

It  is  as  if  the  great  leaders  of  the  German 
nation  had  risen  from  their  graves,  Bismarck 
and  Moltke  planning  again  in  the  headquar- 
ters of  state  and  army.  It  is  as  if  Schiller 
had  come  to  life  and  was  inspiring  with  his 
ethical  idealism  the  troops  which  are  defend- 
ing their  home  land  in  the  west,  as  if  he  called 
to  them  once  more:  "Infamous  is  the  na- 
tion which  is  not  ready  to  give  everything 
for  its  honor."  And  it  is  as  if  at  the  eastern 
frontier  at  the  town  of  Konigsberg  a  little 
old-fashioned  man  had  left  the  grave,  Im- 
206 


THE    MORALS    OF    THE    WAR 

manuel  Kant,  and  wliispered  into  the  heart 
of  everyone :  '  ^  There  is  only  one  thing  worth 
while  in  life,  and  that  is  the  moral  will." 
And  all  are  ready  to  give  their  lives  to  pro- 
tect those  boundaries  against  the  Russian  on- 
slaught. Never  was  the  moral  will  of  the  na- 
tion more  alive  and  more  pure. 

Even  the  poems  of  the  day  affirm  it  in  all 
its  solemnity.  Everyone  has  read  those  Eng- 
lish poems  cabled  over  the  world  which  the 
war  has  brought  forth.  But  all  which  they 
had  to  say  was  boastful  pride  in  England  and 
hatred  for  the  enemy.  No  tone  of  that  kind 
was  heard  in  Germany.  One  poem  after  an- 
other is  filled  with  the  moral  meaning  of  the 
world  event.  The  controlling  idea  is  that  of 
self -discipline.  We  have  taken  life  too  light- 
ly; we  have  lived  too  much  for  the  joys  of  the 
day,  and  the  pomp  of  the  outer  world;  now 
the  hour  of  sacrifice  and  of  need  and  of  sad- 
ness has  come  to  us.  May  it  make  us  purer 
in  heart  and  deeper  in  thought  and  more  ideal 
in  action.  The  whole  meaning  of  life  is  to 
do  one's  duty,  and  suffering  may  help  us  to 
become  better.  I  may  pick  out  of  many 
similar  songs  one  by  Richard  Dehmel.  I 
know  he  has  always  felt  the  pulse-beat  of  the 
207 


THE    WAR    AND    AMERICA 

German  nation.  My  daughter  translated  his 
short  poem.  It  may  be  the  closing  word  of 
this  first  part  of  my  little  diary: 

Hour  of  steel,  thou  art  a  blessing 
That  at  last  unites  us  all. 
Friend  and  foe,  still  peace  caressing, 
Trembled  in  suspicion's  thrall. 

Now  comes  the  fight, 

The  honest  fight! 

Greed  with  blunted  claw  has  meanly 
Bartered  for  its  pomp  and  lust; 
Now  we  all  are  feeling  keenly 
What  can  save  our  souls  from  dust: 

The  hour  of  need, 

Of  blessed  need! 

Truth  will  blaze,  through  darkness  smiting, 
Over  dust  and  powder's  smoke. 
Not  for  life  we  men  are  fighting — 
Fighting  till  the  fatal  stroke: 

For  then  comes  death, 

Divinest  death! 

Led  by  faith,  thy  land  defending. 
People,  for  thy  spirit  fight. 
Heroes' blood  for  honor  spending! 
Sacrifice  be  our  delight — 

Then  victory. 

Hail  victory! 

208 


NOTE 

The  first  papers  of  this  diary  were  written 
in  the  first  days  of  the  war.  They  were 
based,  of  course,  on  the  knowledge  available 
at  that  time.  I  have  not  changed  them  after- 
wards, because  I  wanted  to  preserve  the  inner 
truth  of  the  immediate  impressions.  But  at- 
tention ought  to  be  drawn  to  one  point  which 
now  appears  entirely  different. 

I  have  emphasized  that  the  war  was  forced 
on  Germany  but  acknowledged  that  tech- 
nically Germany  declared  the  war.  We  know 
now  that  even  this  is  not  the  case.  Even 
the  technical  war-making  was  begun  by  Rus- 
sia and  France.  The  Russian  and  French 
troops  crossed  the  frontiers  and  made  pris- 
oners before  Germany  took  any  warlike  step. 
After  Russia's  actual  starting  of  the  war, 
Germany  simply  declared  in  its  ultimatum 
that  if  these  hostile  movements  did  not  stop 
at  once  it  would  consider  itself  in  a  state  of 
war.  They  did  not  stop  and,  therefore,  Ger- 
many withdrew  its  ambassadors. 
209 


NOTE 

Since  it  has  become  absolutely  clear  that 
the  war  was  started  by  Russia  and  France 
and  that  Germany  was  in  no  way  responsible, 
the  anti-German  press  has  suddenly  discov- 
ered that  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the 
war  is  ^ '  very  unimportant. ' '  Historians  will 
judge  otherwise.  They  will  be  unwilling  to 
disburden  the  allies  so  easily.  It  is  very  im- 
portant to  understand  who  started  this  war 
of  wars  and  to  know  that  Germany  was  loyal 
to  her  policy  of  peace  till  the  enemies  actually 
crossed  her  frontiers. 


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